The Gothic wonder that is Leuven’s 15th-century town hall
Leuven is the main town in the Flemish region of Brabant and is famous for its brewing and gloriously ornate town hall. Visiting Leuven from Brussels is easy as it is a simple 25-kilometer/15.5-mile drive from Belgium’s capital city.
Historic Leuven is a beguiling university town with a charming series of vast public piazzas that transform into open-air cafés on fine days. Leuven’s oldest district is found around the 13th-century, UNESCO-listed Groot Begijnhof, or Grand Beguinage, a tranquil complex of gabled housing and gardens that were early versions of social housing for laywomen who gave their lives to God by helping others. The town also has a cluster of fine churches, the earliest dating from the late 10th century and built in Romanesque style, as well as the oldest botanical gardens in Belgium, built for medical students at the university in 1738.
However, Leuven’s pride and joy is its imposing 15th-century town hall; considered to be the finest in Belgium, it is a slender slice of Gothic architecture adorned with gables and five delicate spires as well as hundreds of statues of biblical and historical figures. Almost as spectacular is the arcaded University Library; dating from 1817, it was destroyed by fire during World War I and rebuilt in the 1920s in Flemish Renaissance style, with step gables and a vast central bell tower. But Leuven also looks to the future and has its fair share of innovative contemporary architecture, including the steel-and-glass clad railway station, a concert hall and arts center.
Possibly thanks to the monks that lived in the four great abbeys in the countryside around Leuven, the town has a longstanding tradition of brewing and regards itself as the capital of Belgian beer. The self-styled “place to beer” is home to five big brewing companies, including the world-famous Stella Artois brewery, which is open daily for guided tours. A further score or so artisanal breweries are dotted around the Brabant region, producing specialized boutique beers in many forms, from mango-flavored geuze to blond beers.
- Contributed by Sasha Heseltine
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