Saint-Verhaegen heritage walk: (Apparent) student heritage

Thursday evening, 17 November, was a pleasant historical preview for Saint-Vé, the student festival at which students of the VUB and ULB celebrate the foundation of their university on 20 November 1834. The Centre for Academic and Liberal Archives organised a heritage walk in Brussels about the universities' founder Pierre-Théodore Verhaegen.

Historian and professor Frank Scheelings led an enthusiastic group through the streets of Brussels. He took VUB'ers, ULB'ers and other heritage enthusiasts through the story of Pierre-Théodore Verhaegen and treated his audience to some juicy anecdotes.

The walk started, of course, on the Grote Zavel. Indeed, this historic square is the starting point of the traditional student procession and the scene of many festivities on that day. Moreover, the Sablon district was home to Verhaegen himself. He lived most of his life around the corner from the square, in the Miniemenstraat.

A big question, of course, was why was the founder of the free university referred to as Saint Verhaegen? Frank Scheelings explained. When ULB students noticed in 1888 that their alma mater was flouting the values of her progenitor, they took to the streets around foundation day. The Catholic press spoke sarcastically of Verhaegen's canonisation. In response, the students elevated him to sainthood: Saint Verhaegen was born. Their aim was to include Free Inquiry in the university's statutes. Free Inquiry stands for the guarantee of free judgment in science without dogma or authoritarianism. A few years after Saint-Vé started, the students achieved their goal and it was included in the statutes, where it still stands today, both at VUB and ULB.

The heritage walk ended at the Palace of Charles of Lorraine. It was in those buildings that ULB's first classes were held on 20 November 1834.