St. Joseph Minor Seminary

St. Joseph Minor Seminary (Sint-Jozef Klein Seminarie or SJKS) is a Catholic secondary school in Sint-Niklaas, Diocese of Ghent, Belgium. There were previously a Recollect monastery and a seminary on the site.

The first buildings were built starting April 1689, the friars were authorised to found the second monactery in the city. The Chapel of Saint Anthony was completed in 1692 and in 1696 Mgr vander Noot, bishop of Ghent consacrated the church, in baroque style and famous for the major carvings of Jan Boeksent. The friars lived there until the French Revolution in the conventual buildings. After they were chased out they never returned. It was later sold to Maurice-Jean de Broglie who converted the old monastery into a Minor seminary dedicated to Saint Joseph. Many important priests were educated here. For the centenary of the school, Pope Pius X sent his personal pontifical blessing in 1908.

Today the seminary has gone, and the building is now part of the Catholic secondary school property of the diocese. At the end of the last century the old main staircase went up in flames. The church was saved from the fire.

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