John Bunyan

The two half-relief figures of  wolves above the gateway are the only remainders of this edifice. The right-hand wall runs steeply up toward the Naamestraat to a ruin that is accesible via an outside staircase. The gateway appears to be an archway, but it was probably a wall tower in which a passageway to the outside was later added. According to the history writer Edward Van Even, the figures of the wolves may be remainders of a Viking altar.*

*From Out and About in Leuven walks leaflet

Owing to the ransackings by Protestant iconoclasts in 1579 and thefts by  French Revolutionists in 1793, the interior of the cathedral is far less rich than it was in medieval times. It nonetheless contains some fine stained glass, such as the Last Judgement Window, dating from 1528, on the west front of the cathedral, facing the altar.*

Also of particular interest is the beautiful and original Grenzing organ.*

The flamboyantly carved Baroque Pulpit in the central aisle depicts Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Paradise. This pulpit, by the Antwerp-born sculptor Hendrik Verbruggen, was built in  1699, although it was not installed till 1776.*

*From The Belgium & Luxembourg Eyewitness Travel Guide.

Although it is the national church of Belgium. Cathedrale Sts-Michel-et-Gudule was granted cathedral status only in 1962. It was built with a sandy limestone brought from the local quarries and is one of the finest surviving examples of Brabant Gothic Gothic architecture

There has been a church on the site of the cathedral since at least the 11th century. Work began on the Gothic cathedral in 1226 under Henry I, Duke of Brabant, and was finally completed 300 years later at the begining of the 16th century, under the reign of Charles V. It was dedicated to the city’s patron saints, archangel Michael and a local 8th-century pious woman, St Gudule.*

The pillars of the nave are decorated with statues of the 12 apostles.

Click on photo for a short video.

*From Belgium and Luxembourg Eyewitness guide.

Palace of the Nation houses the parliament today. This forms an harmonious part of the perspective of Parc de Bruxelles. A symbolic site of the Belgian revolution of 1830, it was occupied by the people of Brussels during the attack against the Dutch.*

*From Brussels Guide – Collection ‘Beautiful Belgium’

Consisting of two 18th-century mansions joined together by King William I of Holland. It was Leopold II who extended it into a royal palace by designing a new facade combining the side pavilions by two symmetrical wings and a portico surmounted by a sculpted pediment. It houses the offices of the royal family and is open to the public in summer. When the national flag is flying on top of the palace it means the King is in Belgium.*

*From Brussels Guide – Collection ‘Beautiful Belgium’

The Place Royal stands on the old square of a magnificent palace of the Dukes of Brabant begun in the 13th century. Embellished in 1452 by Philippe le Bon, altered and fitted out by Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabelle, it was ruined by a fire in 1731, then rebuilt. 40 years later as a rectangular square consisting of eight XVI-style mansions linked by porticos. Saint-Jaques sur Coudnberg, the neoclassical church, dominated in the centre, since 1848, by a statue of Godefroy de Bouillon, King of Jerusalem, setting off on the First Crusade.

The medieval abbey church that originally stood on this location was demolished by command of Charles Alexander of Lorraine during his expansive urban planning projects, despite having escaped the great fire of 1731 that destroyed the nearby Coudenberg Palace. The new church was built in line with rue Montagne de la Cour/Hofberg on its present location at the Place Royale. Construction of the facade was started by architect Gilles-Barnabé Guimard after the designs of Jean-Benoît-Vincent Barré (1775). The first stone was solemnly laid by Charles Alexander of Lorraine on the 12th of February 1776. The portico was finished in 1780. The nave, transept, choir and sacristy were built under supervision of Louis Montoyer in the years 1785-1786. After the consecration of the building it was in use as abbey- and parishchurch at the same time. Moreover it was the official church of the court of the Governors of the Habsburg Netherlands. The present building was designed to serve as the Church of the Abbey of Saint-Jacques on the Coudenberg and therefore has a deep extended choir with place for choir stalls for the monks.

During the French Revolution, the abbey was suspended and the church was made into a Temple of Reason, and then later into a Temple of Law. The church was returned toCatholic control in 1802. On July 21, 1831, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha took the oath that made him H.M. Leopold I, the first King of the Belgians, on the front steps of the church. The building lost somewhat of its typical neoclassical temple-like appearance by the addition in the 19th-century of a bell tower (after the design of Tilman-François Suys) and a coloured fresco by Jean Portaels on the pediment.