Day 21: Leuven

Today we bid farewell to Oostende and its beautiful oceans. We took a train to Leuven, a medieval city that is currently a college student town (similar to Berkeley, I suppose).

Our tour guide, Patrick Pasteure, said that it was a medieval city due to the fact that it had a church and town hall, and that the streets all radiate from the center. The main street links the railway station to the town hall (although this is actually a fairly new road). You can tell which streets are from which period by how they move: streets that are very straight are usually not from the medieval period, as medieval streets had a tendency to follow the geography. This city has maintained its basic shape from where its medieval walls once stood as well. The bourgeois would live in mansions where the current city center is today, and the poorer folk would live in the outskirts. Even so, Leuven is a pretty small city in comparison to some of the others in Belgium.

Leuven’s main industry is the brewery (currently home to Stella Artois, Jupiler, and Budweiser). It has changed a lot in the last twenty years with many commemorative buildings to World War I. It should also be noted that Leuven was a city subject to bombing, and that almost all of the buildings were completely destroyed. Some original structures remain, but most of the buildings are reconstructed.

Leuven has a very interesting history to it. In the late 14th century, Leuven and Brussels were essentially competing for a duke’s attention. The city that the duke chose would become the capital of Belgium. Leuven was originally the stronger competitor, as it had one of the largest town halls in the world. However, two mistakes were made, both revolving around plans to make a cathedral of epic proportions.

• The cathedral was built on a foundation of marshland, which proved to be a very poor foundation in general.
• The citizens of Leuven did not realize how much the cathedral project would cost and could not afford their overambitious plans.

In the end, Brussels won out over Leuven. That’s not to say that Leuven did not have its successes, though. A university was established in 1427, and the same architect had built the town halls in both Leuven and Brussels.

An interesting thing to note is that the town hall and church are right across from each other. The church and state constantly competed for power. The town hall is shaped like a shrine, as it keeps the symbolic source of power inside: the liberties of the city. The church also has a shrine on the inside, also containing elements that define the city. The shrines of each building are also intended to defy the structure of the other building. Hah! Both the basic structure of the buildings survived the bombings of World War I. The details, however, did not. Many of the details seen on these buildings are reconstructed.

We got to go inside the church as well. The church of Leuven is an example of late Gothic architecture and would have been painted in the Middle Ages. This church is part of what was meant to be the huge cathedral in the 14th century. Patrick drew our attention to a very old version of a familiar painting.

It’s The Last Supper! Prior to this trip, I actually had no idea that other artists had thought to depict this scene. Shows how much I know about art, I guess.

This particular painting of The Last Supper by Dirk Bouts is an example of “primitive” Flemish art. There is a strong emphasis on decoration and detail, as was typical of the Baroque period. This painting is exceptionally clear compared to other Flemish primitives, but it is not entirely “natural” at the same time. The painting manages to both attain and transcend realism. This painting is also very serene in comparison to the dramatic take of the Last Supper painting we are most familiar with.

But then again, I guess there is more potential for books and movies from this version, huh?

We then visited the University of Leuven, a prestigious part of the town. Originally, its only involvement with the church was that the church had helped with founding the university, but the University of Leuven is now a Catholic university due to the Catholic revival after the French Revolution. The present university is very much like its 19th century counterpart. The university also has a church, which is of late Gothic/early Roman style.

Within Leuven, there was a movement of women wanting to live a devout life without taking the vows of sisterhood. This movement spread within cities and churches throughout Europe, and was met with opposition by the church. Thus was the beginning of the Beguinage, an area that was completely rebuilt in the 17th century and still exists today.

Something interesting I learned today: the Belgians actually traveled to and had contact with China! In the 17th century, European missionaries (mostly Jesuits) went to China to convert their population. Their strategy was to convert the emperor, so they invested a lot of time into studying the Chinese language and classic literature. A strong interest in Chinese civilization developed as a result, contributing to the 18th century enlightenment. A man from Belgium actually ended up becoming one of the heads of the Chinese court. An astrolabe monument is dedicated to him.

It never occurred to me that Europe might have traveled throughout Asia and contacted the people there. It makes more sense now, considering that they are closer and on the same continent. You only ever hear of Asian contact with America in school. I guess that’s what an ethnocentric education does to a person.

We concluded our tour of Leuven by visiting the carillon, which is actually a Belgian instrument! If you go to UC Berkeley and you don’t know what a carillon is, something is clearly very wrong with you. Just so you know.

The carillon is located in the central university library, considered the “most American” building in Leuven. The library had originally been built in World War I, but was destroyed by German soldiers. There was a strong wave of solidarity to Belgium and Leuven after the destruction, and the library was rebuilt with the funds from 300 American universities, including ours!

Go Bears! :)

There are many interesting statues along the front of this building. The center statue is of the Virgin Mary in armor killing the German eagle, and the corners of the building have animals that represent the elite countries. There are 48 stars in total on the clockwork, representing the 48 contiguous States of America.

The carillon itself was invented 500 years ago. After World War I, the carillon became very popular in the United States, as the Germans had destroyed ten. The reconstruction of the carillon in Leuven was supposed to be canceled, but Herbert Hoover, a man who brought aid to the starving Belgian population, paid for its reconstruction. When the building was bombed again during World War II, a woman from UC Riverside visited and raised enough funds—around 300,000 euros—to save the tower.

The clockwork music played by carillons was originally meant for the purpose of time, not entertainment. However, more bells were added, increasing the range of the instrument and increasing its capacity to play other songs. More bells were added to this particular carillon as a result of a competition between Belgium and the Netherlands. There were originally 48 bells to represent the 48 States of America at the time. The standard number of bells was 49, and Leuven’s carillon eventually grew to have 63 bells! However, it was beat out by Berlin when a carillon with 68 bells was constructed.

The carillon is very sensitive to temperature and is adjusted with the metal cords in the playing room. The bells are fixed and cannot be changed. It is played in a similar fashion to piano, but with foot pedals to play some of the lower (and thus larger) bells. We had the privilege of hearing the carillon player perform a ragtime piece, some Gershwin, and a popular slow song.

The person who will be my roommate this upcoming year took the carillon class. Maybe I will too, one of these days!