Convent Van Maerlant, Gothic Revival church building in European Quarter, Belgium

The Convent Van Maerlant is a Gothic Revival complex of red brick on the Rue Van Maerlant. Its long range carries grey stone bands and a steep dark grey hipped roof with a row of white-framed dormer windows above a recessed arched entrance; to the right a taller block rises into an octagonal turret with a slender pointed grey spire. The church now holds the European Commission's central library.

The 1435 chapel on the Rue des Douze Apôtres, built under a papal bull as expiation for the 1370 Host desecration, was the convent's first place of worship. Anna de Meeûs founded the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in 1844, and in 1850 they moved into the Salazar town house on the Rue des Sols, replacing its wing with a red neo-Gothic church. Expropriated in 1907 for the North-South connection, the community rebuilt church and chapel almost identically in the Maelbeek valley; the originals were demolished in 1955 for the Ravenstein Gallery.

The convent is named after Jacob van Maerlant, the medieval Flemish poet. Its side chapel, rebuilt as a replica of the 1435 original, was re-inaugurated on 25 September 2001 as the Chapel of the Resurrection, or Chapel for Europe, and is used for dialogue between Christian groups in Europe. Its stained glass windows, painted by Viennese artist Thomas Reinhold, were produced at the Schlierbach convent in Upper Austria and financed by nine Austrian regions to cover five biblical themes.

The building now serves as the European Commission Central Library and is open to visitors seeking research materials and resources. Located in the European Quarter, it is accessible to the public, though visiting hours and access policies should be confirmed beforehand.

The convent is the only pre-war building left on Rue Van Maerlant, and it nearly fell to a developer who wanted seven nine-storey office blocks on the site. The land was reserved for the Council of the European Union, which had to provide housing instead, and public pressure secured the restoration.