The shrine-like building of Leuven's City Hall is striking. Ornately decorated in the late Gothic Style, the City Hall features 236 prominent figures from the town's history on its external fascades.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, St.Peter's Church in Leuven is located in the very centre of the Grote Markt. The Church boasts a beautiful interior featuring Baroque and Gothic elements.
The Catholic university in Leuven was established in 1425 and internationally renowned. However, in 1968 a division led to the creation of the "Université Catholique de Louvain" in Louvain-la-Neuve, the new university town.
Just 2km/1mile southwest of Leuven at Heverlee the Kasteel van Arenberg (16th C.) on the Dijle has fine grounds and is well worth a visit. The château with its two striking corner towers with gabled roofs was built in traditional late Gothic style with Renaissance features and today is property of the Catholic University, which maintains several institutes here and in the grounds.
The IJse, a tributary of the Dijle, flows through peaceful green countryside to the southwest of Leuven, where vegetables, especially chicory, are grown and grapes are pressed.
The Keizersberg at the end of Mechelsestraat is crowned by the Keizersberg Abbey, built in neo-Romantic style in the last century on the site of the former castle of the Dukes of Brabant.
North of Sint-Gertrudiskerk stands the Smaller Béguinage, founded in the 13th C. The present day houses in traditional brick and sandstone were built in the 17th and 18th C.
A museum and gallery found on the ground floor of Erasmus College. It contains anonymous works from all over the world and others by Picasso, Magritte, Delcaux and Delahaut.
Address: Louvain la Neuve Museum, Place Blaise Pascal 1, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Hours:
10am-6pm; Sun:2pm-6pm; Sat:2pm-6pm
Tips: Free admission on the first Sunday of every month.
The festival lasts for three days in May. The celebrations starts on Friday evening and continues on Saturday and Sunday with a festival of street theater featuring artists from Belgium and abroad. The artists will perform in a surprising way in parades and on open-air theaters. The highlight would be the original parade with over 1,000 participants, 200 horses, wagons, giants and dragons.
The Museum van Humbeeck-Piron on the ring road west of the Keizersberg is dedicated to the work of the Leuven artists Pierre van Humbeeck (1891-1964) and Maria Piron (1888-1969).
The building to the left of the town hall is a reconstruction of 1921. Named the Tafelrond, it is the meeting house of the rhetoricians' guild, built at the end of the 15th C. by de Layens.
For the visitor interested in Flemish films there is the Vlaams Filmmuseum in Boekhandelstraat, a short street to left of the town hall from the market.