The winter garden of the Ursuline Convent is one of the most beautiful Art Nouveau buildings in the country. The only problem is it is hidden inside a Catholic convent school. It used to be almost impossible to visit, but now you can now book to join a guided tour on Sunday afternoons.
The winter garden was designed to impress wealthy parents who were looking for a good boarding school for their daughters. It is a stunning Art Nouveau space designed by an unknown architect with a vaulted iron roof, stained glass windows and palm trees in pots.
The guided tour takes in other surprising spaces, including Empire-style interiors, galleries with tiled floors, and a beautiful corridor lined with 35 neat little rooms where girls sat at pianos practising their pieces.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
