A spectacular Art Nouveau building in Antwerp’s Volkstraat was built by Jan Van Esperen for the socialist party in 1901.
The flamboyant building is decorated with distinctive Art Nouveau arched windows, elaborate ironwork and carved figures at the top.
The utopian socialists abandoned the building in the 1950s and it is now occupied by a Rudolf Steiner school.
The building is occasionally open to the public. Otherwise the façade is all you can see.
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.
