Leuven Town Hall

Leuven Town Hall is late Gothic carried almost to the point of lace. Every surface of its three storeys facing the Grote Markt is worked with pointed windows, canopied niches and carved corbels, a parapet runs along the top, and above it a steep roof bristles with four tiers of dormers between slender octagonal turrets at the corners. Built between 1439 and 1469, it is one of the finest examples of the Brabantine Gothic style, and it faces the great Gothic church of St Peter across the square, so that the two buildings together form the centre of the old university city.

Leuven, in Flemish Brabant east of Brussels, has been a university town since 1425, when a studium generale was founded here in what was then the Duchy of Brabant. The town hall was begun on the site of an older one as part of a larger complex of municipal buildings. Its first architect, Sulpitius van Vorst, died soon after work started, and so did his successor Jan Keldermans II, in 1445. The building as it stands is the work of Matheus de Layens, who took over in 1448 and laid the first stone of the front house that March. The early plans, influenced by Brussels Town Hall, called for a belfry tower at one corner; de Layens replaced it with the symmetrical arrangement of turrets, giving Leuven a town hall without a belfry. The masonry and roof were finished in 1460 and the whole building in 1469. Cellars of older houses demolished for the site survive beneath it.

The niches stood empty for centuries. Only after 1850 were they filled with the 236 statues seen today: figures from local history on the first floor, patron saints and allegories on the second, and the counts of Leuven and dukes of Brabant on the third. The corbels beneath them are carved in high relief with biblical scenes; most were replaced in the 19th century, and many originals are kept in the attic. Above the twin central portals stand Saint Peter, a nod to the church opposite, and the Madonna and Child. The building escaped with little harm when much of Leuven was destroyed in 1914, though a bomb in front of it in the Second World War caused damage that was not fully repaired until 1983. Inside are sculptures by Constantin Meunier and Jef Lambeaux and portraits of the city's mayors since 1794.

Getting there

The Town Hall stands on the Grote Markt in the centre of Leuven, Belgium. Brussels Airport (BRU) is about 15 km away in a straight line, with direct trains to Leuven station, which lies on the eastern edge of the old town within walking distance of the square.