EXHIBITIONS
Karel Cuypershuis, submitted by the Humanistisch-Vrijzinnige Vereniging (HVV)
In the Karel Cuypershuis (“Karel Cuypers House”), secular humanist organisations have for decades held activities and showed that secular humanism is not just a philosophy or ideology, but a community, with its own actions and culture.
The Humanistisch Verbond (HV – “Humanist Covenant”), later the Humanistisch-Vrijzinnige Vereniging (HVV – “Secular Humanist Association”), was based in the building between 1979 and 2015. At that time the building was already more than a hundred years old. In 1878, architect Joris Helleputte, a former member of parliament for the catholic party in Maaseik, designed the house at the request of André Dumont, a professor at the catholic university in Leuven.
The house gained new occupants and was furthermore recognised as a protected monument in 1979. HV respected the catholic-gothic architectural style: all secular humanist symbols that were added after 1979 can be removed. There is one small exception to this rule: the lion with a secular humanist shield. This was made by the city of Antwerp and replaced the previous Gothic statue that adorned the banister.