During the early Middle Ages, Louvain was also celebrated for its University, founded in 1426, and suppressed by the French in 1797. It was re-established by the Dutch in 1817, but abandoned by the Belgian Government in 1834, and then started afresh in the next year as a free private Roman Catholic University. Charles V. was educated here.
The modern town has shrunk far away within its ancient ramparts, whose site is now for the most part occupied by empty Boulevards. It is still the stronghold of Roman Catholic theology in Belgium.]
As you emerge from the station, you come upon a small Place, adorned with a statue (by Geefs) of Sylvain van de Weyer, a revolutionary of 1830, and long Belgian Minister in England. Take the long straight street up which the statue looks. This leads direct to the Grand’ Place, the centre of the town, whence the chief streets radiate in every direction, the ground-plan recalling that of a Roman city.
The principal building in the Grand’ Place is the Hôtel-de-Ville, standing out with three sides visible from the Place, and probably the finest civic building in Belgium. It is of very florid late-Gothic architecture, between 1448 and 1463. Begin first with the left façade, exhibiting three main storeys, with handsome Gothic windows. Above come a gallery and then a gable-end, flanked by octagonal turrets, and bearing a similar turret on its summit. In the centre of the gable is a little projecting balcony of the kind so common on Belgian civic buildings. The architecture of the niches and turrets is of very fine florid Gothic, in better taste than that at Ghent of nearly the same period. The statues which fill the niches are modern. Those of the first storey represent personages of importance in the local history of the city: those of the second, the various mediæval guilds or trades: those of the third, the Counts of Louvain and Dukes of Brabant of all ages. The bosses or corbels which support the statues are carved with scriptural scenes in high relief. I give the subjects of a few (beginning L.): the reader must decipher the remainder for himself. The Court of Heaven: The Fall of the Angels into the visible Jaws of Hell: Adam and Eve in the Garden: The Expulsion from Paradise: The Death of Abel, with quaint rabbits escaping: The Drunkenness of Noah: Abraham and Lot: etc.
The main façade has an entrance staircase, and two portals in the centre, above which are figures of St. Peter, L., and Our Lady and Child, R., the former in compliment to the patron of the church opposite. This façade has three storeys, decorated with Gothic windows, and capped by a gallery parapet, above which rises the high-pitched roof, broken by several quaint small windows. At either end are the turrets of the gable, with steps to ascend them. The rows of statues represent as before (in 4 tiers) persons of local distinction, mediæval guilds, and the Princes who have ruled Brabant and Louvain. Here again the sculptures beneath the bosses should be closely inspected. Among the most conspicuous are the Golden Calf, the Institution of Sacrifices in the Tabernacle, Balaam’s Ass, Susannah and the Elders, etc.
The gable-end to the R., ill seen from the narrow street, resembles in its features the one opposite it, but this façade, which was even finer than the others, is at present in course of wholesale restoration.
The best general view is obtained from the door of St. Pierre, or near either corner of the Place, diagonally opposite.
Do not trouble about the interior.
Opposite the Hôtel-de-Ville stands the Church of St. Pierre, originally erected in 1040, but entirely rebuilt in 1430, to which date the whole existing edifice belongs. It is a handsome late-Gothic building, with a fine West Front, never completed, and a truncated tower. The central West Window is imposing, but the ruined portal has a depressing effect. Walk round the church once outside to observe its exterior architecture, obscured towards the Grand’ Place by the usual agglomeration of small Renaissance houses. The main entrance is in the South Transept; above it stands a poor modern statue of the patron, St. Peter. The High Choir, with its flying buttresses, would form a fine element if the houses were cleared away, so as to afford a view of the chapels below.
Now view the interior. Go at once into the body of the church. The general effect is handsome, but the walls are cold and white-washed. The church has a fine Nave, with single Aisles, short Transepts, high Choir, and Ambulatory. The Nave, Transepts, and Choir, have all an exactly similar clerestory, with an unusual Triforium of open latticework, and tracery in the same style in the spandrils of the arches.