Historic Cities · Belgium
Leuven through the ages
Leuven, also called Louvain, is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. A Dutch-speaking municipality, it is located about 25 kilometres east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the sub-municipalities of Heverlee, Kessel-Lo, Leuven proper, Wilsele, and Wijgmaal and parts of Haasrode and Korbeek-Lo.
Leuven in 1470
Gothic Leuven
A prosperous Brabant cloth town reborn after 1425 as a university city, Louvain in 1470 shows its new civic pride: the lace-like pinnacles of the recently topped Town Hall and the soaring choir of Sint-Pietersberg. This walk moves from the city walls and gates into the collegiate streets and the Grote Markt, then follows the Dyle past mills and breweries to the brick lanes of the Grand Béguinage and the abbey slopes beyond.
In 1470 Louvain's silhouette is dominated by the stone filigree of the new Town Hall and the mass of Sint-Pieterskerk, their pinnacles and spires rising above a sea of steep red-tile roofs and stepped-gable façades. The Grote Markt is edged with narrow guild-front houses of brick and timber; the long timber-and-stone cloth hall stands near the square. Along the Dijle low brick breweries and wooden millraces crowd the river, while a stout second ring of walls and gate towers encloses the town.
The route: 16 streets, squares and views
Fields outside Naamsepoort → Naamsepoort → Naamsestraat → Colleges, Naamsestraat → Lakenhal (Cloth Hall) → Grote Markt → Stadhuis (Town Hall) façade → Sint-Pieterskerk → Guild houses, Grote Markt → Wolstraat (Wool Street) → …
Step inside, 8 interiors
Disputation Hall · University Schoolroom · Aldermen's Chamber · Choir with the Last Supper · Drapers' Great Hall · Woolworker's Workshop · Cooling Loft · Béguine's Parlour
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Leuven.
From the archive
Leuven on paper: the old town as it was mapped.
A period plan or bird's-eye view of the old town, drawn between 1500 and 1850 — the streets this page's reconstructions walk. Public domain, with its source named.
Lovanium — town plan of Leuven (Braun & Hogenberg)
Detailed engraved plan showing the enclosing town wall with gates, the dense medieval street and block pattern, central market/church area and surrounding fields and roads.
1542 · Braun, Georg (German topographer, 1542-1622) (artist) · Wikimedia Commons
Public domain (plate dated 1542)
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