Stadhuis (Town Hall)

Tradition has it that the first Town Hall of Leuven was situated at the 'Oude Markt' or Old Market Square. The second was located on Great Market Square of Leuven. It had its place in a row of houses in front of Saint Peter's Church, but outside the present building line.

The construction of the present Town Hall started in 1439. The spacious cellars of the houses were retained when the building of the façade began. These cellars have been restored and can now be reached through a small door, at the bottom left part of the building. Sulpicius van Vorst, under whose management the works had begun, died.

Jan Keldermans II undertook the task and in 1448 Matthew de Layens was in charge. He altered some details of the plans. The belfry-tower that had to be built at the corner of Naamsestraat was left out so that the building got its Flamboyant Gothic character with four corner turrets, two ridge turrets and a balustrade all around the building.

There are three floors. Between the windows there are oriels, each with two niches; three corner-turrets also have niches. The carved bases of these niches represent biblical subjects. The motif of sin and punishment is often repeated. These scenes had a didactic and admonishing function, not only for the common people but also for the judges who resided in the building. The 236 statues in the niches were only placed after 1850. The whole set has become the Leuven pantheon! Unlike the figures in the bases who wear Burgundian clothes, the persons in the niches wear the clothes of the period in which they lived.

The two rows on the ground floor represent artists, scholars and eminent citizens of the Leuven past. The first floor displays figures who symbolise the municipal privileges and the patron saints of the parishes.

On the second floor the Counts of Leuven and the Dukes of Brabant can be noticed; the turrets represent biblical figures. Since the nineteenth century three restorations have taken place. The latest finished in 1983 and repaired the war damage, suffered when a bomb scraped the façade and did not explode ...

The waiting hall on the ground floor is in fact the covered extension of the Great Market Square; this is also what it was used for in the Middle Ages. From there it was possible to reach all the municipal services and via the towers you could gain access to the rooms on the upper floors and to the attics.

The beam blocks at the extremities of the seven oak girders were carved in 1448-1449 by Willem Ards, a Brussels woodcarver. He mainly sculpted scenes from the Old Testament. They were intended to inspire the town councillors to adopt a good and cautious policy and a righteous judgment.

At the beginning of the 20th century a number of monumental studio plasters of the famous artist Constantin Meunier were discovered. He resided in Leuven from 1887 through 1894 and he taught at the academy.

The carving of the beam blocks in the Gothic hall and the consoles on the side of the Great Market Square were also entrusted to Willem Ards. Here the New Testament was the source of inspiration, more specifically the life of Mary and Jesus. Obviously, this was not a coincidence. The New Covenant was indeed (in this instance literally) built on the Old one. Christ is also an example of righteousness - an example which is in the right place in this important location of the town hall. During the last decades of the 19th century the Gothic hall was thoroughly restored. The floors and ceilings were repaired and the walls were covered. An impressive chimney was built on one of the short sides of the hall. For the walls the city council commissioned eleven paintings from the Tournai artist André Hennebicq. He painted four monumental canvasses with important events from the history of Leuven and seven full length portraits of Leuven artists and scholars. This series is displayed between the windows on the side of the Great Market Square.

The salons are located in the oldest section of the town hall. The walls of the first salon are decorated with the portraits of the Leuven burgomasters since the French period. In the 19th century this room was used as a council chamber. On the occasion of the visit of Leopold I to Leuven in 1852 the second and third salons were thoroughly refurbished. The paintings worked into the panelling date back to before the 19th century and belong to the municipal art collection. The eye-catcher in the second salon is the masterwork of Pieter-Jozef Verhaghen, Moses being introduced to the daughter of the pharaoh.