Second Minderbroeders monastery The main administrative building of Maastricht University is housed in the former Second Minderbroeders monastery, which dates from 1699. When in 1999 the university moved in, the building represented a long history already. The ‘Lesser brothers’ (or friars minor or Franciscans) were followers of Saint Francis of Assisi, founder of one of the mendicant orders. The rigid Classicist façade of the monastery’s church well reflects the ideals of poverty and sobriety pursued by the friars originally living here. The all-seeing eye in the front refers to God’s eye watching over humankind; the triangle with lines is a representation of the Holy Trinity. In the French era, the friars were forced to close their monastery, and subsequently the building was used as almshouse. Later on, from 1806 to 1975, the main building served as prison, while in the mid-1820s the church was turned into a court building and a military police barracks. An in-between floor was put it that rested on Doric columns. Until 1917 the military mounted police had its offices and stables where in the old days the church’s apse and presbytery had been. The architects of the building’s most recent transformation into the university’s main administrative office sought to ensure that the intricate, layered history of the complex would be maximally visible again. They largely restored the original spatial effect of the monastery complex. Although they deemed it necessary to add a void to create offices on both sides, the in-between floor was almost entirely removed again. Moreover, by taking out a block of prison cells, the monastery’s courtyard got its original size and layout again. Part of the former monastery church was redesigned to serve as the university’s auditorium. In the very same spot where friars filled the presbytery and military mounted police officers took care of their horses, today one will regularly run into graduate students who just defended their dissertation or professors who are ready to deliver their inaugural lecture.