Global InformationConvent Van Maerlant information
| Convent Van Maerlant | |
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 The church is on the left in red brick. The chapel is the small grey building to the right. | |
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| General information | |
| Architectural style | Neo-Gothic |
| Location | City of Brussels, Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium |
| Coordinates | 50°50′28″N 4°22′41″E / 50.84119°N 4.37815°E |
| Current tenants | European Commission |
The Convent Van Maerlant (French: Couvent Van Maerlant; Dutch: Van Maerlantklooster) is a former convent which consists of a church and the Chapel of the Resurrection on the Rue Van Maerlant/Van Maerlantstraat in Brussels, Belgium. It is named after Jacob van Maerlant, a famous medieval Flemish poet.
The original chapel was built in 1435 in the authority of a Papal Bull, and was renovated in the 1780s. The convent of the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration itself was converted from a Ducal town house in the early 1850s.[1] In 1905, a compulsory purchase order for land for Brussels-Central railway station was made on the Rue des Sols/Stuiversstraat, and this included the convent. As a result, a virtually identical chapel was built, which survived for another 45 years, only finally being demolished in 1955. Falling vocations meant the convent was closed in the early 1980s, and after standing derelict for nearly 20 years,[citation needed] it was acquired to become the central library of the European Commission.
- ^ The foundress' autographed biography in the author's possession, also private documentation from the remaining sisterhood idem.