Tour of the city centre
Just start at the top. The tower of the University Library can be seen from everywhere anyway, so why not climb it? At the very top, a magnificent panorama of a sea of rooftops and towers awaits you. Along the way, be sure to poke your nose into the large reading room. Like stepping into a Harry Potter story.
On ground level again? Walk to the Grote Markt and admire the ornate turrets of the Town Hall. You can keep looking at that stately, richly detailed Gothic building, and you still won’t have seen all 235 statues. From biblical figures to Leuven personalities, each sculpture has a story.
And then visit the St Peter’s Church. There you can admire The Last Supper by 15th-century Leuven master painter Dieric Bouts. No crowded museum, no queues. Just you and a masterpiece that has been hanging here for almost 6 centuries.
University city
The university is interwoven into the city. For more than six centuries - since 1425 - it has helped determine the rhythm of Leuven.
From the University Library, it’s just a short walk to Naamsestraat. Feel free to call it the Leuven High Street, because with all those handsome historical colleges you imagine yourself in Oxford. Via the Atrecht College, you walk along a hidden shortcut straight towards the municipal park. Georges Lemaître, the Leuven scientist behind the Big Bang theory, worked at the Premonstreit College. And Pope’s College overlooks the lively Hogeschoolplein.
Leuven also owes the most beautiful piece of greenery in the city centre to the university. The Botanical Garden has been growing plants from all over the world since 1738. You just stroll between them and pretend to understand all the Latin names. It is Belgium’s oldest botanical garden, created especially for medical students at the time and open to everyone today.
More peace and quiet can be found in the Great Beguinage. You stroll through narrow streets, over bridges and past centuries-old houses along the Dijle. Beguines once lived here. Today, mostly students and international researchers from the university.
Fancy going a bit further? Walk or cycle out of town to the Arenberg Castle, a neo-Gothic building in the middle of the countryside where science and technology students attend classes. Spend an afternoon walking along the castle walls and have a picnic among the students. Or explore the Wandering Garden, a steel labyrinth full of swaying climbing plants.
