The building that now houses the Arts Library was built in the 17th century as the abbess's house. The house was actually a guest house of the former Cistercian abbey, which was founded here in the 14th century. The sisters of the abbey worked in the hospital next to the abbey. The core of the building you see here today was once part of the old Bijloke Abbey. In the 19th century, the former house of the abbess became part of the Maternity and Midwifery School on the Bijlokekaai. This wing was thoroughly renovated in the 19th and 20th centuries and extended with the garden gallery, so that the Cistercian sisters of centuries ago would no longer recognize their building today.