Aula

The "Aula" is a part of the Ghent university, which was founded in 1817, during the "Dutch" era. It was the Dutch king Willem One who wanted a State University in this town.

In the beginning, existing buildings were used to house the university: empty convents were transformed to auditoria and the town hall was used for all official matters. But they realized that a main official university building was required. The town architect Louis Roeland was given the task to build one, resulting in this building, erected in 1826.

Most of the time, there are exhibitions here and you can enter the Aula via the door to the right of the building.

Every year, the academic year is "opened" here.

The most spectacular opening of all times was certainly the opening of the year 1930. After a fight of more than 40 years the University of Ghent became the first Dutch-speaking university in Belgium. The headmaster of the Ghent university was then August
Vermeylen. Because Ghent was still a very French-speaking city at that time, a group of French-speaking people sabotaged the opening. They switched off all the lights of Ghent to symbolize that this would become the dark period of Ghent.

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