Seminary Notre-Dame - Namur

In 1569 the first bishop of Namur, Mgr. Antoine Havet, a fairly modest minor seminary op. Formerly an episcopal seminary , this complex was built in 1731-1734 by architect Jean-Thomas Maljean on the initiative of Bishop Thomas de Strickland, on the site of several buildings that had been used for this purpose since 1656, including the large beguinage known as hors-le-postil which was founded in the 13th century and the small beguinage.

It was built with a U-shaped plan opening onto a courtyard and flanked by two small wings to the north and the chapel to the south. Abolished in 1797, it was restored in 1805 by Bishop Charles-François de Pisani de la Gaude.

After being transferred to Salzinnes for some thirty years, on the site of the former Cistercian abbey, the Grand Séminaire de Namur, now the Séminaire Notre-Dame , returned to the walls of the old institution in 2000 to continue its mission of educating of priests for the Church today.

Since 2010 , seminarians from the four French-speaking dioceses of Belgium (Namur, Liège, Tournai and Mechelen-Brussels) have been trained together in Namur

Willem Vandenameele