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Chronicles In Stone
The richly decorated Town Hall of Leuven, Belgium, is a landmark building in the city’s Grote Markt (Main Market), across from historic St. Peter’s Church. Built in a Brabantine Late Gothic style between 1448 and 1469, it is known for its ornate stonework.
The architect was Sulpitius Van der Vorst, and the first stone was laid in 1439. When Van der Vorst passed away soon afterwards, the architect Jan Keldermans II, continued his work. When Keldermans died in 1445, a third architect, Matheus de Layens, continued the construction from 1447 until 1468, and he is credited with giving the building its “vibrant” Gothic look.
In addition to its unique architecture, Leuven’s Town Hall is noted for its 236 statues. Although these statues sit within the building’s original niches and corbels, they are relatively recent, dating from after 1850. Statues at the lower level represent people of importance in the local history of the city, the next level represents patron saints and symbolic figures, and the highest level depicting Counts of Leuven and Dukes of Brabant.
During the bombings of World War II, Leuven Town Hall suffered considerable damage, which resulted in another renovation campaign from 1962 until 1983. In the 1990s the stone received a thorough cleaning, and later that decade, the Catholic University of Leuven created a multi-media presentation on Leuven Town Hall’s stonework that depicted the extraction of stone from the quarry, its transportation by cart and boat and its sculpting.
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