École normale de Nivelles — Nivelles

Set on a sloping site of just over two hectares, the École normale (teacher training college) complex, which the inventory describes as showing great Art Deco architectural homogeneity, was built in 1927, probably by the Brussels architect Ernest Tondeur. The buildings are arranged in a quadrangle around a large two-level courtyard: the western wing along the street houses the administrative and service functions and classrooms, the southern wing is centred on a central block enlivened on the courtyard side by a five-sided rotunda, the eastern wing contains classrooms and the single-storey northern wing the sports facilities. They combine brick, rough-hewn sandy limestone rubble for the bases, limestone for the bands, quoins and window surrounds, and a light rendering on the upper parts of the walls, beneath projecting slate gable roofs. On the street, the central block, topped by a curved scrolled pediment, houses the monumental basket-arched limestone doorway, surmounted by an architrave bearing the inscription "ECOLE NORMALE" and retaining its original ironwork; in the south-west corner, a tall engaged tower of three storeys, crowned by a pediment containing a clock, breaks the symmetry of the southern wing. Inside, many floors, wall tiles, staircases and wrought-iron banisters dating from the construction survive. The complex is recorded in the Walloon heritage inventory.

Translated from the French original.