(b Brussels, 31 Aug 1847; d Brussels, 11 Sept 1917). Belgian architect, designer, engineer, writer and politician. After graduating as an engineer at the University of Ghent in 1870, he established himself in Charleroi before settling in Ghent on his marriage in 1872. Under the influence of JEAN-BAPTISTE-CHARLES-FRAN?OIS BETHUNE, he worked in the Belgian Gothic Revival style on architecture, furniture and wall paintings and in stained glass, gold, iron and embroidery. From 1875 to 1895 he directed the workshop for stained glass founded by Bethune. Verhaegen's most important building is the new Beguinage (1873) of Sint Amandsberg near Ghent, which conforms to the severe Gothic Revival ideals of Bethune and anticipates some of the features of garden-city designs. His churches and conventual buildings at Ghent (Poortakker, 1874; St Macharius, 1880-82), Hekelgem (abbey, 1880; church destr.), Paris (Oeuvre des Flamands Church, c. 1875) and Rome (Everlasting Adoration, 1885-6) and ch?teaux at Watermaal-Bosvoorde (1880-81) and Merelbeke (1884-5) were also in a severe Gothic Revival style. Among his successful restorations are churches at Soignies and Nivelles and the Pont des Trous at Tournai. He published monographs on Bruges Cathedral (1879), Byloke Abbey at Ghent (1889) and the Ch?teaux de Laerne (1891) and the Gerard Duivelsteen at Ghent (1894). At the end of his career he concentrated on politics and, as a co-founder of the Association Ouvri?re Anti-Socialiste, the Ligue D?mocratique Belge and the newspaper Het Volk, became one of the creators of the Belgian Christian Democratic movement.

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