Collège d'Alzon, Catholic school in Bure, Belgium.
Collège d'Alzon is a school located in Bure that provides classrooms with laboratory spaces, a sports hall, a theater, and outdoor recreational areas. The campus combines educational facilities with natural surroundings for student learning and development.
Founded on 16 October 1900 by Father Pierre Descamps and 15 boys as Alumnat Notre-Dame de l'Assomption, the school occupied the château of Bure, a former summer residence of the Benedictine abbots of Saint-Hubert. A fire destroyed most of the farm in 1918 and closure followed in 1920. Reopened in 1925 as Alumnat Marie-Médiatrice, it was rebuilt after a second fire in 1938; during the Battle of the Bulge up to 600 villagers sheltered in its cellars.
The school's name changed with each restart: Alumnat Notre-Dame de l'Assomption in 1900, Alumnat Marie-Médiatrice from 1925, later Collège d'Alzon. Its Assumptionist identity is tied to the village of Bure, where the community found refuge after the Combes laws drove it from France. In 1999 director Jean-Marie Decorte was named Righteous Among the Nations posthumously for hiding Jewish students during the war.
The school stands in Bure, a village in the Tellin municipality of Luxembourg province, beside open grass playing fields. It is a working secondary school, so visits are arranged with the administration rather than made freely. The site lies in the Ardennes, where winter conditions can make the surrounding roads difficult.
During the Battle of the Bulge, from 23 December 1944 to 9 January 1945, up to 600 villagers sheltered in the school's cellars while some thirty shells hit the building; the walls held but the roof and windows were destroyed.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 93,464 contributors worldwide.