ADVERTISING INFORMATION

Leuven is situated on the important axis Oostende-Brussel-Leuven-Liege-Köln. Frequent train connections join Leuven with Mechelen, Antwerpen, Brussel, Gent, Brugge, Oostende, Hasselt en Liege. As to the car traffic Leuven is located near the junction of two important motorways: E 40 and E 314.

The town Leuven covers an area of 14,371 acres and consists of the following boroughs: Heverlee, Leuven, Kessel-Lo, Wilsele and part of the former municipalities: Wijgmaal, Korbeek-Lo and Haasrode. Since 1 January 1999 Leuven has 88.244 inhabitants.

The history of Stella Artois is closely connected with the history of Leuven. The foundation of the university of Leuven in 1425, the digging of the canal Leuven-Rupel in the 18th century, two industrial revolutions and two world wars; all were events that played a fundamental part in the development of this beer town and... of the brewery Artois. When the name of the brewery 'Den Horen' (the Horn) turns up for the first time in the ducal levy records in 1366, it marks only the beginning of a brilliant success story, because in 1537 this brewery had already developed into the most important enterprise in Leuven.

In 1717 'Den Horen' was under control of master-brewer Sebastien Artois and thus for more than a century all the brewer's know-how was handed down from father to son. Around the turn of the century the brewing of the golden Pils-beer of low fermentation was started up at Artois. In 1926 - and this for the first time - the brewery brought a barley beer onto the market and called it with the name 'Stella', the Latin word for 'Star'. The famous 'stella', a 'star' in the Brewers' Sky, is a beer that makes beer-fanciers feel at home.

The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is early Gothic. The date of construction, 1305, is carved into the right buttress of the north portal. Approximately 300 'Begijns' lived in the 'Begijnhof' in the 17th century. The 'Begijns' or 'Beguines' were women who lived a religious life but kept their own property and supported themselves. They did not make perpetual vows. The movement was very strong throughout the Low Countries.

Schapenstraat , this 'Begijnhof', or 'garden of the Begijns', was founded in the 13th century outside the town wall of the time. The oldest houses date from the 16th century when the original houses were replaced by brick structures. The 72 houses are generally named after a saint or a Biblical event. The 'Begijnhof' was taken over by the Welfare Commission in 1925. Except for the church, it was sold to the University in 1962 under the condition that the entire complex be restored. A year later the Restoration began under the direction of Professor R. Lemaire.

The 'Groot Begijnhof' is now a University residential quarter for students, professors, and employees of the University. Foreign guests are also housed here. There is room for 500 people.

The Infirmary of the 'Begijnhof' has been converted into the Faculty Club, a place for the academic, scientific, administrative, and technical staff of the University to meet. The Chives Convent,  has been converted into a congress center.

Tradition has it, that the first Town Hall of Leuven was situated in Old Market Square. The second was located on the Great Market Square of Leuven. It had its place in a row of houses in front of St. Peter's Church, but outside the present building line. The construction of the present Town Hall started in 1439. The spacious cellars of the houses were retained when the building of the facade began. These cellars have been restored and can now be reached through a small door, at the left bottom part of the building. Sulpicius Van Vorst, under whose management work had begun, died. Jan Keldermans II undertook the task and in 1448 Matthew de Layens was in charge. He altered some details of the plans.

The belfry-tower, that had to be built at the corner of Naamsestraat was left out so that the building got its Flamboyant Gothic character with four corner turrets, two ridge turrets and a balustrade all around the building. There are three floors. Between the windows there are oriels each of them with two niches; three corner-turrets also have niches. The carved bases of these niches represent biblical subjects. The motif 'sin-punishment' is often repeated. These scenes had a didactic and admonishing function, not only for the common people but for the judges who resided in the building as well.

The 236 statues, in the niches were only placed after 1850. The whole set has become the Leuven pantheon! Contrary to the figures in the bases who wear Burgundian clothes, the persons in the niches wear the clothes of the period in which they lived. The two rows of the ground floor represent artists, scholars and eminent citizens of the Leuven past. The first floor displays figures who symbolise the municipal privileges and the patron saints of the parishes. On the second floor the Counts of Leuven and the Dukes of Brabant can be noticed; the turrets represent biblical figures.

Since the nineteenth century, three restorations have taken place. The latest was finished in 1983 and repaired the war damage, suffered when a bomb scraped the facade and did not explode...

Park Abbey: About 1129, Geoffrey the Bearded bestowed his hunting-ground, located south of Leuven, on the Pre-monstratension, still the residents of an interesting group of buildings, surrounded by green meadows and ponds. The walls and archways, the water-mill, the huge tithe barn, once the hub of agrarian and economic activities, enclose the abbey. Successive architectural styles - from Romanesque to Gothic, Renaissance and eventually baroque - have left traces of a typical Brabantine version. For a while, the visitor is assimilated into the monastic life when he enters the beautifully restored abbey-church and sacristy, when he sits down in the attractive chapter-room, when he walks in the cloister and witnesses petrified beauty, when he watches the unrivalled stucco ceilings in the refectory and library, when he passes the dormitory and when he leaves the abbey. In the cemetery, you see several tombstones of famous people.

© copyright 2000 - eurotravelling.net