Leuven - City Hall

(Local Name: Stadhuis) The south side of the Grote Markt, a traffic junction where all the main streets converge in the middle of the town, is dominated by the stadhuis (city hall), built to plans by Sulpitius van Horst, begun by Jan Keldermans II and completed by Matthaeus de Rayens 1448-1463. It is one of the most magnificent secular buildings of late Gothic style in Europe and is decorated more lavishly than the city halls of Bruges, Brussels, Ghent and Oudenaarde. The building, which resembles a shrine, bears De Layens' distinctive architectonic trademark in the form of three narrow smaller towers at each gable end instead of a single tall central tower. Three rows of sculpture adorn the main facade and both side facades. The 236 figures which were only installed at the end of the 19th C. represent eminent personalities from the history of the town, whereas the consoles and bases of the niches were carved with reliefs from the Old and New Testament, some of them with medieval coarseness, when the stadhuis was built. Even the roof is richly decorated with small turrets.

Inside the entrance hall are flags of the seven noble families of Leuven. This leads to three rooms newly furnished in the 18th and 19th C. The Great Gothic Council Chamber with its carved beamed ceiling (15th C.) and Gothic fireplace and the Small Gothic Hall with a Gothic vaulted wooden ceiling are noteworthy.