Convent and school complex Sisters of Maria Ingelmunster

Convent and school complex of the 'Sisters of Maria Ingelmunster', dating back to the so-called "Assemblée des Filles de la Charité", founded in 1769 by Father P.J. Dufort. Initially, the sisters settled in a bourgeois house on what was then Meulebekestraat to set up a school for the poor. In 1872 and 1882-1883 the so-called congregation hall and classrooms were built respectively. After the liberation days of 1918 when, according to tradition, a miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary prevented the entire building from going up in flames, the congregation adopted the name 'Sisters of Mary'. Current building complex from the fourth quarter of the 19th century and the first half and third quarter of the 20th century. On the street side from left to right, a monastery and school building from the first quarter of the 20th century with a historicizing regionalist slant, and a school building from the first quarter of the 20th century that is more in line with the new objectivity. Chapel at the back from 1957. Convent and school building of thirty bays, partly on the raised ground floor and two storeys under gable and mansard roofs, the latter with arched skylights (ridge parallel to the street, mechanical tiles), respectively for the buildings from the 1920s and the core from the fourth quarter of the 19th century with façade parement from 1911, see date stone. Regional brick architecture includes the systematic use of the verticalising Bruges bay, which describe the arched wall openings, including the basement windows. The difference between the oldest core with parement from 1911 and the adjacent wings from 1920 lies in the brick colour and the somewhat more stocky proportions that are related to the width of the stepped gable and the piers, among other things. The elevation of the left and right adjacent wings from the 1920s is also typified by an alternation of risalite-forming stepped gables and cornice gables. Profiled portal under Marianis preceded by a bluestone stairway; preserved woodwork and ironwork (No. 8). The back of the wing on the right, however, has a more contemporary conception, see sleek rectangular window registers. Perpendicular to the oldest core with parement from 1911, extension of a wing from the fourth quarter of the 19th century under mansard roof with bell tower. Parallel to this wing, a cloister from the 1950s leads to the chapel; walls opened up by means of large round-arched windows and covered by pent roof with exposed trusses. Right-hand adjoining cut and seam school, said to date from circa 1925; seven bays on raised ground floor, and three storeys under gable roof (ridge parallel to the street, mechanical tiles). Symmetrically conceived façade front in the line of the new objectivity, marked by means of risalites protruding above the cornice delineated by corner lisenes. Large rectangular windows under continuous concrete lintels. In the middle ressault, entrance gate in belted and chamfered bluestone frame, surmounted by a statue of the Virgin Mary. Partly preserved woodwork with a horizontal rod division. Behind the cloister, oriented single-nave monastery chapel from 1957, said to have been designed by architect A. Corselis (Ingelmunster). The floor plan reveals a nave of seven bays, a narrower choir of one bay with a straight closure and a south-east sacristy. Dark ornamental brick; Steep curved slate gable roofs (ridge perpendicular to the street) and ditto hipped roof for the sacristy. Stylized regional elements in the steep western gable on shoulder pieces are: the large oculus with heavy cross division and the square turret under tent roof; The linked windows, buttresses and dormer windows in the side walls belong to the same design language. Sober white-plastered interior dominated by concrete pointed barrel vault with belt arches and intermediate gables of the dormer windows. Pointed arches between nave and rood screen and nave and choir. No mobilair worth mentioning. In front and behind the chapel, fairly large cloister garden dominated by hedge structures with hornbeam and conifers; at the back Lourdes grotto and labyrinth leading to a hedged crucifix. SISTERS OF MARIA INGELMUNSTER, We celebrate between yesterday and tomorrow, July 2, 1769-1994, Ingelmunster (brochure).

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