Ancien orphelinat Sint-Lutgardis et école Sint-Rita — Sint-Truiden

Former Sint-Lutgardis orphanage, with chapel and school, built in the Art Deco style to designs by the city engineer Guillaume Govaerts; decided in 1929 by the Public Assistance Commission, the works were carried out from 1930 to 1933 and the building, put into use in 1934, was registered in the land registry in 1935. That same year the Black Augustinian Sisters opened the Sint-Rita school in the left wing; after the orphanage closed in 1976, the academy of fine arts moved in in 1980, while the school is still in use. The brick complex over a basement, of two storeys under a mansard roof, is centred on an entrance bay 'strongly worked out in Art Deco' according to the inventory, flanked by two tower-like bays under white-painted octagonal crowns and, on each side, by nine bays grouped in threes by pilasters continuing into the roof. Above the round-arched portal the façade is almost entirely glazed and bears a statue of St Lutgardis, patron of the institution; the original sash windows with small panes and glass of various tints survive. The chapel, on a Greek-cross plan, is covered by intersecting gable roofs with a small bell tower at the crossing; inside, the terrazzo floors and the central staircase with iron railings survive. The complex is recorded in the Flemish architectural heritage inventory.

Translated from the French original.