Nos événements

In Wetteren, the Saint Joseph Institute grew up around its chapel, the richly decorated heart of a large complex born of a long history of religious communities.

At its origin stood a hunting lodge, built in 1822 for the mayor Charles Hippolyte Vilain XIIII and wholly remodelled in 1849 to the plans of the architect Louis Minard. From 1853 the Apostoline Sisters of Saint Joseph settled on the neighbouring grounds, where a convent, a hospital and a boarding school followed one another; from 1901 to 1927 the French congregation of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart kept a girls' boarding school here and extended the castle with a wing.

In 1934 the architect Adriaan Bressers unified and enlarged the complex in an Art Deco spirit. The chapel forms its core; to the west rises an imposing brick tower, at once stair tower and clock tower. The ensemble is a protected monument.