Sint-Jan-de-Doperkerk (Saint John the Baptist Church) is situated within the Groot Begijnhof.

The construction of the current Early Gothic church was started in  1305 and was completed between 1421 and 1468. The Saint John the Baptist Church is built in the local Rural Gothic style of Leuven but also has several Roman chatacteristics, such as heavy buttresses, small upper windows and a terraced tower. The lack of spires is reminiscent of the mendicant orders and the convents. During recent restorations, numerous frescoes from the 14th, 15th and 17th centuries were uncovered.*

As I wandered around the cobbled streets of the Begijnhof I found the sound of the carillon’s bells quite charming and delightful.

*From the Out and About in Leuven walking guide

Founded in around 1230, the Groot Gegijnhof was one one of the largest beguinages in Belgium and home to several hundred beguines. The complex of 72 charming red-brick cottages, dating mostly from the 17th century, is set around grassy squares and cobbled streets near the River Dijle. The university in Leuven bought it in 1962 and converted the cottages into student accommodation.*

Flanders is famous for the number of its surviving enclosed residences for Beguines, unmarried or widowed women who adopted a life of religious devotion but without taking the full vows of a nun.**

Beguines were initially solitary women who worked helping the poor and preaching. Progressively, and in the face of growing suspicion on the part of male religious authorities, they grouped together to live in a walled residential community know as a Beguinage (French) or Begijnhof (Dutch). The first Beguinage in Belgium appeared in Mechelen in 1207.

Beguinages were formed across the southern Netherlands from the 12th century onwards. Of the 100 that existed in the 14th century, around 25 remain.**

Beguines lived in solitude in separate small houses. They divided their time between prayer, manual work (sewing or lace-making) and taking part in collective Beguinage events, such as religious services and processions. Some Beguinages selected their members on the basis of social status; others were open to all, and numbered their inhabitants in thousands.

Beguines have been described as the earliest women’s movement in Christian history, a community of financially independent women who existed outside the church and the home, the only acceptable domains for women at the time.

The male counterparts of Beguines were known as Begharads, and were usually of humble origin. Similar to Beguines in that they were not bound by vows and did not follow a uniform rule of life, they differed in that they had no private property, lived together in a cloister and ate at the same table.**

*Belgium & Luxembourg Eyewitness Guide

**Bruges Smart Guide, Insight Guides