Great Beguinage

 

This walled district, with its picturesque cobblestone streets, beautifully restored beguinages and charming Dijle bridges, has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998. Heavenly carillon music regularly resounds from the tower of the Gothic Saint John the Baptist Church.

place Groot Begijnhof, 3000 Leuven

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Community of religious woman

On the Dijle, just outside the first city wall, a community of beguines settled in the thirteenth century. These were religious women who did not take monastic vows, but decided to live near each other, to remain unmarried and to lead a sober and pious life. They earned their living by teaching, caring for the sick, washing wool and bleaching cloth, among other things. More than nuns, they retained their independence. The construction of the second city wall in the fourteenth century integrated the Great Beguinage into the city.

The oldest building in the Great Beguinage is the St. John the Baptist Church (Sint-Jan-De-Doperkerk), whose construction began at the beginning of the fourteenth century. The church is early Gothic in style, but Romanesque elements can also be discerned. The church interior was given a baroque styling in the seventeenth century. In 1937 the church became a protected monument and was restored between 1978 and 1985. That restoration beautiful late medieval wall paintings. Today, the church is home to the University Parish.

Aan het einde van de zestiende eeuw maakte Pierre de Bersacques deze oudste bekende afbeelding van het Groot Begijnhof (Universiteitsarchief KU Leuven).
At the end of the sixteenth century, Pierre de Bersacques made this the oldest known image of the Great Beguinage (University Archives KU Leuven).

Heyday of the Beguinage

The Great Beguinage still has a few houses from the sixteenth century – built in half-timbering with loam filling – but most of the houses date from the seventeenth century and were built in brick. The seventeenth century was the prime time for the Great Beguinage. There were more than three hundred beguines living there at the time and, in addition, probably quite a number of female relatives of those beguines. To accommodate them all, the Beguinage was expanded in the seventeenth-century with the so-called Spanish Quarter or Soldier’s Quarter.

Decline and restoration

From the 18th, the number of beguines in the Leuven Great Beguinage declined. A similar process then manifested itself in beguinages elsewhere in the Low Countries. This was considered late; in other European regions the beguine movement had bled to death centuries ealier.

In 1800 the Leuven Great Beguinage was ultimately transferred to the Commission of Civil Almshouses (the predecessor of the Commission of Public Assistance and of today’s OCMW (public centre for social welfare). Since then, the houses of the Great Beguinage also housed widows, orphans and less privileged families. Over time, many small artisans also settled in the vacant beguinages. 

Groot Begijnhof, met de Sint-Jan-De-Doperkerk, gefotografeerd door Edmond Fierlants in 1865 (Universiteitsarchief KU Leuven)
Great Beguinage, with the Saint. John the Baptist Church, photographed by Edmond Fierlants in 1865 (KU Leuven University Archives)

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, these beguinages fell increasingy into despair, a process reinforced by the trail of destruction left by World War II. Demolition was imminent but could eventually be prevented because the University of Leuven decided to buy the Great Beguinage – with the exception of the church – at the beginning of the 1960s. 

Begijntjes bij de kerk van het Groot Begijnhof (Universiteitsarchief KU Leuven)
Beguines at the church of the Great Beguinage (KU Leuven University Archives)

A large-scale restoration followed. This took place in two phases: Raymond M. Lemaire led the first, Paul Van Aerschot the second. The restoration project was completed in 1990. Three years earlier – in 1987 – the Great Beguinage had already become a protected monument.

Restauratie van het Groot Begijnhof (Universiteitsarchief KU Leuven)
Restoration of the Great Beguinage (KU Leuven University Archives)
Groot Begijnhof in de jaren 1970 (Universiteitsarchief KU Leuven)
Great Beguinage in the 1970s (KU Leuven University Archives)

Great Beguinage today

Today, the Great Beguinage is a residential courtyard for students and visiting professors of the university. The former infirmary or patient room now houses the Faculty Club, a restaurant and banquet hall of the university. The Convent of Chièvres, formerly a community house for destitute beguines, has been transformed into a KU Leuven conference center. There are many other fine buildings in the picturesque streets that recall the beguine past, such as the Holy Ghost Table, where indigent beguines could receive food, drink and shelter, or the Kerckeroom, where the meetings of the beguinage council took place. Also note the many reliefs and inscriptions above the doors of many of the houses in the courtyard.

Photo: Rob Stevens
Photo: Rob Stevens
Photo: Rob Stevens

Did you know ...

  • That in the Great Beguinage you will find the Saint Nicholas House, a seventeenth-century richly decorated residence that was demolished in the 1970s on Parijsstraat and skillfully at this site.
  • That sister Julia, the last beguine of the Great Beguinage (who lived there for more than sixty years, died in 1988.
  • That the Dutch youth series ‘De Legende van de Bokkerijders’ was partly filmed in the Great Beguinage.
  • That the Great Beguinage, together with 12 other Flemish beguinages, was recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1998. 
Sint-Niklaashuis (Foto: Rob Stevens)
St. Nicholas House (Photo: Rob Stevens)
Zuster Julia, de laatste begijn van het Groot Begijnhof (Universiteitsarchief KU Leuven)
Sister Julia, the last beguine of the Great Beguinage (KU Leuven University Archives)

Want to know more about the Great Beguinage 

  • Rik Uytterhoeven, Het Groot Begijnhof van Leuven (Leuven: Davidsfonds, 1996).

Heritage walks that pass this monument

 

Great Beguinage, UNESCO world heritage

  • Duration: 1h30 - Distance: 2 km
  • For groups only – upon request

View walk

 

One hundred years of female students in Leuven

  • Duration: 3h - Distance: 10 km

View walk

 

Universitair patrimonium in het stadscentrum

  • Duration: 2u - Distance: 4 km
  • For groups only – upon request

View walk

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