Grand Beguinage

Community of religious women

On the River Dyle, 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 chose to live near one another, remain unmarried, and lead a sober and devout life. They earned their living by teaching, caring for the sick, washing wool and bleaching cloth, among other things. Unlike nuns, they retained a greater degree of independence. The construction of the second city wall in the fourteenth century incorporated the Grand Beguinage into the city.

The oldest building in the Grand Beguinage is the Saint John the Baptist Church, the construction of which began at the beginning of the fourteenth century. The church is early Gothic in style, though Romanesque elements can also be discerned. The church's interior was given a Baroque design in the seventeenth century. In 1937, the church  was declared a protected monument, and it was restored between 1978 and 1985. During this restoration, beautiful late medieval murals were discovered. Today, the church is home to the University Parish.

Heyday of the Beguinage

The Grand Beguinage still contains a few sixteenth-century houses – built in half-timbering with loam filling – but most of the houses date from the seventeenth century and were constructed in brick. The seventeenth century was the heyday of the Grand Beguinage. There were more than three hundred beguines living there at that time, along with quite a number of their female relatives. To accommodate all beguines, the Beguinage was expanded in the seventeenth-century with the so-called Spanish Quarter, or Soldier’s Quarter.

Decline and restoration

From the eighteenth century onwards, the number of beguines in the Leuven Grand Beguinage declined. A similar process took place in beguinages elsewhere in the Low Countries. This decline was considered late; in other European regions, the beguine movement had already died out centuries earlier.

In 1800, the Grand Beguinage was transferred to the Commission of Civil Almshouses (the predecessor of the Commission of Public Assistance and today’s Public Centre for Social Welfare). From that time on, the houses of the Grand Beguinage also accommodated widows, orphans, and less privileged families. Over time, many small artisans also settled in the vacant beguinage houses. 

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, these beguinage houses fell increasingly into disrepair, a process reinforced by the trail of destruction left by the Second World War. Demolition seemed imminent but was eventually prevented when the University of Leuven decided to purchase the Grand Beguinage, with the exception of the church, in the early 1960s. A large-scale restoration followed, carried out in two phases. The first was led by Raymond M. Lemaire, and the second by Paul Van Aerschot. In 1987, the Grand Beguinage was listed as a protected monument, and by 1990 the restoration project was completed. 

Grand Beguinage today

Today, the Grand 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, once a community house for poor beguines, has been transformed into a KU Leuven conference centre. Many other fine buildings line the picturesque streets, recalling the beguine past. These include the Heilig-Geesttafel, where indigent beguines could receive food, drinks, and shelter,  and the Kerckekamer, where the meetings of the beguinage council took place. Also noteworthy are the numerous reliefs and inscriptions above the doors of many of the houses in the courtyard.

Heritage walks that pass this monument

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