Institute Champagnat

The Champagnat Institute // In the early twentieth century, the Superior-General of the Dames de la Sainte-Famille, Dame Justine de Monie, and Dean de Meus, decided to establish a school for boys on the site of a former chapel that welcomed parishioners prior to the construction of the Church of the Holy Family.

This school would be run by the Marist Brothers. The first classes opened in 1903, and from then on the school developed rapidly.  A new building project was then conceived that would be more appropriate and more comprehensive. The old school building was replaced by a new complex, designed in 1914 by architect Frans Hemelsoet at the request of the Parish of the Holy Family. It consisted of a main volume in front of the Riga square, extended at the rear by an oblong body of classrooms lined by passageways.