The Robert Catteau secondary school (french: Athénée Robert Catteau) is a

French-speaking French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in No ...

school owned by the City of Brussels, located on rue Ernest Allard, part of the subsidized public schools network ''enseignement officiel''. Since 1948, it holds the name of Robert Catteau (1880-1956), attorney, journalist and

alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members them ...

of the City of Brussels. The original name of the school was ''École moyenne A'', founded in 1851 within the Free University of Brussels. The school provides modern general education preparing for university studies and qualifies itself as a "center of excellence".

History

The building of the ''École moyenne A'', in

Art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

style, took place from 1923 to 1927 between the Church of Saints-Jean-et-Étienne-aux-Minimes and the Palace of Justice, following plans of architect François Malfait. The ancient convent of the Minimes, built on the house of

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...

anatomist

Andreas Vesalius Andreas Vesalius (Latinized from Andries van Wezel) () was a 16th-century anatomist, physician, and author of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, '' De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem'' (''On the fabric of the human body'' ...

, had been decommissioned in 1790, and served successively as a deposit of begging in 1801, a

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ch ...

factory in 1813, a lithography workshop in 1815, a military hospital and finally a women's prison before being destroyed in 1920. Malfait had to contend with the height difference and the strict height limit of the buildings to preserve the

panorama A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...

of the

Poelaert Joseph Poelaert (21 March 1817 – 3 November 1879) was a Belgian architect. He was entrusted with important projects in Brussels, such as Saint Catherine's Church, the Church of Our Lady of Laeken, the Congress Column, the Royal Theatre of ...

square located above. The new buildings of the Middle School A were inaugurated on September 27, 1927. On December 7, 1948, the school became the Athénée Robert Catteau. In 1948, the upper grades comprised three classical orientations: the Latin-Greek, Latin-Mathematics and Latin-Sciences sections (created in 1947). A ''Scientific A'' section was created in 1951 and a seventh secondary preparatory grade to higher education in 1958. The Athénée opened to girls in 1978. In 2011, sections were restructured in order to adapt to other establishments in the

Brussels-Capital region Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. The Latin-Greek, Latin-Mathematics and the Latin-Sciences final orientations remained unchanged, but Scientific A became Mathematics-Sciences and a new finality was added: the Economy-Mathematics section. On January 1, 2016, Evelyne Gotto replaced André Possot as head of the athenaeum.

Architecture

The building is built of light colored brick, in the geometric spirit of

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

, with decorative elements of red brick and white stone for the sculptures and the large cornice in cavet that crowns the top of the building. File:Bruxelles 64 rue des Minimes 01.jpg, Facade, corps piece File:Bruxelles 64 rue des Minimes 02.jpg, Sculpture of the facade

Educational system

The school offers a traditional (non-renovated) education which has the reputation of being demanding and rigorous. For example, it emphasizes the study of ancient languages and is strongly centered on theoretical sciences and mathematics. The Athénée is a public school following the curriculum of the City of Brussels public school system, and furthermore is part of the ''Enseignement officiel'' network of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles. The complementary 7th secondary grade prepares students, mainly coming from other secondary schools or other countries, to Polytechnic, Medicine or Science faculties, as well as to the Royal Military Academy.

Graduation project

The Athénée Robert Catteau is one of Belgium's last schools where pupils have to present an end-of-studies work (''Travail de fin d'études''), in order to get their diploma.

Competitions

The school holds the highest number of first prizes as well as the highest number of prizes in general at the Belgian Mathematical Olympiads since its creation in 1976. Two students have also won a silver medal at the

International Mathematical Olympiad The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. It has since been held annually, except ...

. In 2015, the athenaeum is selected and then, in 2016, ends up in the final stage of the Cansat project of the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

with its team ''SCADA 378'', having launched a rocket which contains a satellite to collect atmospheric information from 't Harde military base in the

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Notable alumni

* Christopher Gérard (Belgian writer) * Daniel Zajfman (Israeli-Belgian physicist; president of the

Weizmann Institute The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli un ...

) * Denis Wirtz (Vice Provost for Research and Theophilus Halley Smoot Professor of Engineering Science at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consiste ...

) *

Jean-Baptiste Pietersz Jean-Baptiste is a male French name, originating with Saint John the Baptist, and sometimes shortened to Baptiste. The name may refer to any of the following: Persons * Charles XIV John of Sweden, born Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, was King ...

(first director, knight of the

Order of Leopold Order of Leopold may refer to: * Order of Leopold (Austria), founded in 1808 by emperor Francis I of Austria and discontinued in 1918 * Order of Leopold (Belgium), founded in 1832 by king Leopold I of Belgium * Order of Leopold II, founded in Congo ...

) * Jean Dierickx (linguist, professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles) * Jean-Philippe Toussaint (Belgian writer and filmmaker) * Léopold Blondiau (Belgian politician, vice-president of the

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

, first president of the Cercle des Anciens de l'Ecole Moyenne A in 1907) * Philippe Moureaux (Belgian politician,

Minister of State Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. In ...

) * Robert Frickx aka. Robert Montal (Belgian author and literature historian, member of the Royal Academy of French Language and Literature of Belgium) * Serge Moureaux (Belgian politician,

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...

and federal congressman) In 2015, Alessandro Telo, who graduated the previous year, undergoes a small media wave for his ability to master 28 languages.

References

External links

Officiel website of the Athénée Robert Catteau

Athénée Robert Catteau on the website of the City of Brussels

Athénée Robert Catteau on the education database of the ''Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Athenee Robert Catteau Secondary schools in Brussels