Statues of human figures added in the 1800s to octagonal turrets on the Stadhuis or Town Hall in Leuven, Belgium. The Stadhuis, built between 1439 and 1469, is a masterpiece of Brabantine, Late or Flamboyant Gothic architecture and the elaborate carved canopies and bases (corbels) of the niches in which the statues stand are part of the Stadhuis’s original 1400s design. Similar niches, long empty, and statues added in the 1800s, feature on the Stadhuis’s facade. The 1800s statues represent eminent citizens, artists, savants, royalty, nobility and religious personalities.
Leuven, Flemish Brabant, Flanders, Belgium: Leuven’s Town Hall, City Hall or Stadhuis, which has stood in the city’s Grote Markt since the mid-15th century. It is a masterpiece of richly-carved Brabantine, Late or Flamboyant Gothic architecture which took thirty years and three architects to build. The gables that close its steep-pitched roof are flanked and surmounted by octagonal turrets topped with sculpted balconies and crocketed pinnacles. The turrets are ringed by 19th century statues; however, the elaborate carved canopies and bases of the niches in which the statues stand are part of the Stadhuis’s original 1400s design. The oldest part of the Leuven Stadhuis – the backhouse – was built in the years from 1439 to 1445 by Sulpitius van Vorst and Jan II Keldermans. The famous fronthouse with its magnificent facade on the Grote Markt, was built between 1448 and 1469 under the leadership of Matthijs de Layens, Leuven’s renowned architect. The attached conservatory along the Naamsestraat was built in 1461. The other youngest wing along the Muntstraat was built only in 1938. Originally not part of the city hall, the “Dekenij van de lakenwevers” – the Weavers’ Hall – built in 1680 was later added to the complex. Leuven was formerly the capital of the Duchy of Brabant but, in the second half of the 13th century, successive Dukes preferred Brussels and the centre of power shifted. In response, and to rival Brussels’ City Hall built in 1401, Leuven established its university n 1425 and began building the magnificent Staduis in 1448. Today, the Stadhuis has a merely ceremonial function after the city’s administrative services moved out in 2009.
Size: 4117px × 2755px
Location: Stadhuis, Town Hall, City Hall, Grote Markt, Market Square, Leuven, Flemish Brabant, Flanders, Belgi
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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