And here’s where they kept the pigs...

One of Flanders most fascinating buildings opens up to tours

Peter Van den Eede admits he absolutely cannot give a tour of the building in which he has worked for 28 years. Public tours of the historical Vooruit building in Ghent’s student district were first arranged last year and have been brought back by popular demand. But they’re only 90 minutes, “and I can’t do it in 90 minutes!” he exclaims. “It’s impossible for me.”

Van den Eede is one of the programmers at Vooruit, an arts centre since it was saved from demolition by a group of enterprising students in the early 1980s. Originally built between 1910 and 1914, combining Art Nouveau with other architectural styles and constantly being added to and embellished, Vooruit was a socialist cultural centre - bombastic to some, proof of the strength of the party to others.

Vooruit has, at last count, 367 rooms. "It was a socialist cathedral," says Van den Eede. "It was a bit of a paradox: on the one hand, you have the socialist movement, the working class, with a building like this. On the other hand, the party thought, why shouldn't the working class get to see an opera?"

On the tour, you'll hear about the controversial beginnings of the building, which can still, says Van den Eede, cause controversy, depending on who's in the tour. Some on the tour are socialists, who know a thing or two about the history of their party and aren't afraid to disagree with the guide. "When we say something critical about the socialists, their faces get red," says Van den Eede. Then they say ‘no!', and we say ‘yes!', and that's fun."

He also greatly enjoyed a tour he once led - back when he led them - that included a group of architects. "This is a strange building," admits Van den Eede. "It's officially called eclectic, meaning it's a mix of styles. So we say that something is Art Deco, and one of them says ‘No, it's Art Nouveau,' and then they would all start arguing about it. Sometimes they would just take over the tour and do the talking for me."

The real leaders of the tour, which are all given in Dutch, are former employees of Vooruit. Though not typical tour guides, they are the only ones who really know the building, says Van den Eede. "They worked here, drank beer here, still have friends here," he says. "The tour members can see that they really love the building."

Besides seeing a few of those 367 rooms normally closed to the public, you'll also see the concert and theatre halls from a different perspective, such as from the stage - the way the artists see them. And you'll hear the stories of Vooruit during the wars, when Germans turned the concert hall into a stable for pigs and horses.