Flemish organization for Immovable Heritage

The Flemish organization for Immovable Heritage, or simply Onroerend Erfgoed is a cultural heritage agency sponsored by the Flemish Government. The organisation is split into four subdivisions; the former VIOE, which inventories Beschermd erfgoed in the Flemish Region; the agency "Ruimte en Erfgoed" which executes policy on heritage management and protection; the Ministry department of Town and County Planning, Housing Policy and Immovable Heritage, or Ruimtelijke Ordening, Woonbeleid en Onroerend Erfgoed (RWO), which supports the Minister of Culture on policy decisions; and Inspectie RWO, which is the inspection arm of the RWO.

The most tangible product that the agency creates are its inventories in three domains; archeological sites, landscapes, and historical building structures. In 1965 Belgium's inventory of the country's heritage was compared to that of other European countries and was found to be lagging far behind. The then Ministry of Education and Culture decided to address the problem by taking a modern inventory of the architectural heritage and Minister of Culture Renaat Van Elslande took the initiative by selecting a pilot project in the district of Leuven (now in Flemish Brabant). In 1967, the survey was completed and under the new Minister of Culture Frans Van Mechelen (), this inventory was published in Dutch and French in 1971. All inventoried heritage was described with text and wherever possible it was illustrated with photographs. The last bilingual publication of the project appeared in 1973 with the district of Nivelles (now in Walloon Brabant). Flanders and Wallonia then went their separate ways.

In Flanders, the ongoing inventory was published as a series by location and was printed as Bouwen door de Eeuwen Heen in Vlaanderen, or "Building through the Ages in Flanders". The printed series ran until 2001, and after that the local inventories for each municipality were published as electronic PDF-files.

The Vlaams Instituut voor het Onroerend Erfgoed (VIOE) was founded in 2004 and was tasked with finishing the inventory. From 2005 onwards, the inventories were kept in a database called "Inventaris van het Bouwkundig Erfgoed" (IBE), or "Inventory of Architectural Heritage". On 1 juli 2011 the VIOE merged with the Agentschap Onroerend Erfgoed to form a new agency for Immovable Heritage called Onroerend Erfgoed.

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