Palace of Charles of Lorraine - Birthplace of the ULB

This walk ends at the beginning. When Verhaegen called for the establishment of a free university in 1834, it was nothing more than a concept on paper, without concrete funding, professors, or classrooms. However, the Université Libre de Belgique was fortunate to be born in Freemason circles. At the banquet of Les Amis philanthropes, where the plan for the ULB was established, the wealthy attendees gathered the necessary funds to ensure the startup. Several of them also offered to teach, so all that was left was to find a location for the new university. This was provided by former Brussels mayor Nicolaas Rouppe, also a member of Les Amis philanthropes, in the form of the former Palace of Charles of Lorraine.

In the buildings here before you, the first lessons of the ULB were held on November 20, 1834. In the early years, the young institution struggled with legal and financial issues, but Verhaegen's project endured. This was in contrast to the Catholic university in Mechelen, which had triggered the establishment of the ULB. It soon closed its doors to reopen in 1835 as KU Leuven in the eponymous city. After spending a few years in the Palace of Charles of Lorraine, the ULB moved in 1842 to the larger Granvelle Palace. The name was changed to ‘Université Libre de Bruxelles’ and the university grew into a mainstay in the Belgian educational landscape. A role that the ULB was later supported in by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, which saw the light of day in 1969. The student folklore developed around the liberal values of Verhaegen and the history of the universities. This is still reflected every year on St-V.

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