The opening of STAM is a milestone for Bijloke abbey; it represents a new phase in a long history that began back in the thirteenth century.
This Cistercian abbey dates from 1228. The central buildings are arranged around an enclosed garden and a cloister, the typical layout of (Cistercian) abbeys. The abbey is renowned for its refectory, which contains fourteenth-century wall paintings.
For some 800 years the nuns were responsible for running the abbey and the hospital and for nursing the sick. In 1797 the abbey was abolished and the nuns vacated the Bijloke. However, they returned several years later and occupied the seventeenth-century extension of the abbey, Bijloke convent. The other abbey buildings served as an 'institution for old men' between 1805 and 1911.
In 1913 the City of Ghent purchased these abbey buildings. Restoration - in some cases radical - followed, along with a number of historicizing constructions. In 1928 the Museum of Antiquities opened. The nuns left Bijloke convent in 2001.
Since 2002 various cultural organizations have moved into accommodation on the first floor. The ground floor was used as an exhibition space.
The abbey and convent buildings are currently being restored in preparation for STAM. At the end of 2007 several recent annexes were demolished and building work on city architect Koen Van Nieuwenhuyse's new entrance got under way at the beginning of 2008.
