Presentation

History

Origin of the Bordet Institute

Inauguration

It was King Leopold III who laid the foundations of the Bordet Institute. Works began on August 1, 1936.
On June 21, 1939, the Bordet Institute was inaugurated. At that time, it was a very modern building. King Leopold III arrived at the "rue de la Gendarmerie" at 11 o'clock sharp and was welcomed by Mr Paul Hymans, Minister of State and Chairman of the Administrative Board at the ULB, by A. Max, Minister of State and Mayor of Brussels and by Mr. Goossens-Bara, chairman of the public assistance commission in Brussels. Many important figures who had contributed to the realisation of the Bordet Institute were there as well. Before leaving the ceremony, the king signed the "festive book" of the new Institute.
The following September, the Institute opened to the public, however, the Second World War broke out just before clinical activities could start. As a result, from 1940-45 the building was first used as a hospital for Wehrmacht officers (a major part of the equipment was stolen), and at the Liberation, it was used as a military hospital for the British Army.
The Institute was available for the population only from October 1, 1945.

Except for the Second World War period, the Bordet Institute has always been not merely a center for cancer treatment, but also a teaching and research center. Therefore, the originality of this Institute is based on the enlightened philosophy according to which cancer has to be treated by a team of physicians of different disciplines who share the same specialized knowledge of the disease, based on clinical practice and research.
Nowadays, the Jules Bordet Institute is the only Belgian institute that can be considered as an integrated anti-cancer center, dedicated to the screening, the diagnosis and the treatment of cancer, and which has a clinical, scientific and teaching activity dedicated to the health problems caused by this terrible disease.

Then the modern history of the Jules Bordet Institute started with the arrival of Prof. A. Claude as Scientific Director. Click here to read the chapter on the modern history of the Institute.

If you wish to have a look at the texts on the Origin of the Bordet Institute, please click on the links on the left of this page or on these links below :
• 1822 to1934
• 1935 - 1936
• Projects
• Inauguration : Text above !
• Slide show

We would like to thank M. Guilardian who is in charge of the archives of the CPAS (Belgian social assistance system) for the pictures and texts he kindly put at our disposal.