The main cultural centre in Ghent occupies a 1913 building created by the socialist cooperative Vooruit (‘Progress’ in Dutch). It is a beautiful workers’ palace decorated with sculptures, grand staircases and high ceilings.
But the cultural centre changed its name in 2021 to avoid it being confused with the Flemish socialist political party, which had changed its name from sp.a to Vooruit.
The cultural organization is now called Viernulvier. The baffling new name was inspired by the internet error message 404 for a page that doesn’t exist. But, just to add to the confusion, the building itself is still called De Vooruit.
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.
