LEUVEN
university and colleges
EN
 Studentenaula | Studentaula
 Oude Markt | Old Market Square
Wherever you may be in Leuven, you are
embraced throughout by the colourful
past of this university town, and meet with
hoards of students. No wonder, if you know
that every academic year around 40,000
young Belgians and foreigners come to this,
the doyen of Flemish University towns to
obtain their Bachelor’s or Master’s degree
or doctorate. For almost six centuries Leuven and its university (K.U.Leuven) have
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been inseparably linked to one another. Leuven
is a very student-oriented town. Young people
make up almost half the total population, ensuring a vibrant atmosphere and an agreeable bustle in a town that lives at a student’s pace. The
bond between Leuven, its university, colleges
and students give the town its unique character consisting of a mixture of culture, enterprise,
scientific and innovative thinking, creativity, a
sense of the future, friendships and parties.
ALMA MATER FOR
six centuries
K.U.Leuven since 1425
K.U.Leuven was founded as a Studium Generale
by Pope Martin V on 9 December 1425 at the request of the town and with support from Duke
John IV of Brabant. This makes it the oldest
university in the Low Countries and the oldest
extant catholic university in the world.
Originally, taking the model of the existing universities of Cologne, Paris and Vienna, it had
four faculties: the Arts, Canon and Civil Law and
Medicine. The Faculty of Theology was added
in 1432. The town made part of the Cloth Hall,
which dates from 1317, available for use by the
university. The building very quickly became
too small for both the Linen Weavers’ Guild and
the university, so the latter took the Cloth Hall
over completely.
The Cloth Hall is currently used as the university’s administrative centre, housing the rectoral offices. Besides this, the ground floor of the
Cloth Hall also serves as a central point of registration at the beginning of the academic year. In
August and September, the gothic Jubilee Hall
on the first floor is used for receptions and parties. A great many doctorates are still defended
publically in the Promotion Hall.
Success and adversity
During its history of almost six centuries, Leuven
University has experienced periods of success
and of adversity. In the 16th century, it acquired
world fame thanks to scholars and professors
such as Adrian of Utrecht (later Pope Adrian
VI), Erasmus, Vives, Vesalius and Mercator. In
the 18th century, the university was subjected to
severe pressure from increased state interference, and in 1797 the French Republic dissolved
the old university.
In 1816 King William I of the United Netherlands
reopened the university as the National University. To counterbalance this national institution,
the Belgian bishops founded a Catholic University in Mechelen in 1834. By 1835, it returned to
its familiar Leuven, while the National University
had been abolished in the meantime.
In 1911, Leuven University began to ‘Dutchify’ its
education. By 1936, most courses were taught
Universiteitsbibliotheek | University library 
in parallel, in Dutch and French. 1968 was an
eventful year for the university, with the split
of the Catholic University of Leuven into two
independent universities, which acquired independence by statute in 1970: the Dutch-speaking
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven),
which remained in the Flemish town of Leuven,
and the French-speaking Université Catholique
de Louvain (UCL), which moved to Louvain-laNeuve near Ottignies, Wallonia.
In 1954, the ‘Universiteit Lovanium’ was established by K.U.Leuven in the colony of the Belgian Congo. Since 1965 K.U.Leuven has had a
presence in Kortrijk, West Flanders (Kortrijk
Campus).
Leuven is a melting pot of
cultures
- In total, Erasmus students from across Europe and master’s and doctoral ones from
every corner of the world make up more than
10% of the total Leuven student population.
- The KUL has more than 38,000 students of
whom approximately 17,700 are men and
21,000 women and around 5,600 international students.
K.U.Leuven is a complete
university with
- 55 Bachelor’s programmes
- 125 Master’s programmes
- 60 advanced Master’s programmes
Research at K.U.Leuven (2011)
- K.U.Leuven
- employs 1,018 full-time professors, has
1,052 full-time post-doctorate students
and 4,381 full-time doctorate students/researchers;
- spends 347 million euros on research
projects
- Recently (based on one academic year)
- 4,338 publications appeared in internationally reviewed academic and scientific
journals;
- There are approximately 585 doctorates
awarded on an annual basis
9 December 1425
1317
1464
Foundation of University
Erection of the building of
he future University hall
Creation of Dirk Bouts’
Last Supper
© Layla Aerts
K.U.Leuven Association
The K.U.Leuven Association has been a reality
since 11 July 2002. It was formed in the context
of the European Bologna Declaration, which was
signed by the European ministers of education
in 1999. The aim of ‘Bologna’ is to improve the
quality and transparency of higher education
programmes in Europe and to optimise the exchange of students, lecturers and knowledge.
Thirteen institutions of higher education in Flanders, including K.U.Leuven, KHLeuven, Groep T
and the Lemmens Institute, are combining forced
within this association in order to occupy a strong
position in the new map of European education.
Dutch is the teaching language of the K.U.Leuven
Association, but because of the university’s
international significance, a large number of chiefly postgraduate - lectures and seminars are
given in English and some in other languages.
KHLeuven
Katholieke Hogeschool Leuven
Leuven University College
Leuven University College is a Flemish Catholic college founded in 1995-1996 by the amalgamation of a number of Catholic colleges in
Leuven and Diest. Leuven University College offers vocational higher education to as wide an
audience as possible. The essence of education
at Leuven University College is its vocational
orientation. Students develop skills that enable
them to continue to function in their profession
in a high-quality manner.
Besides vocational Bachelor’s programmes in
the fields of education, commercial sciences
and business administration, healthcare, in4
dustrial sciences, technology and social and
community work, you can also find advanced
Bachelor’s programmes, postgraduate and
post-vocational education.
Groep T
Leuven has had its own technical school since
1888, which has gradually developed into a
leading technical university college that trains
both teachers and engineers of international
standard.
Beginning as the Peter’s Technical School, the
establishment developed into a Technical Institute for Engineering Students, to be rechristened Groep T in 1970. Some years later its
Technical Engineers acquired the status and
degree of Industrial Engineer.
It opened its doors to the international community in 1994, when the first Groep T delegation
went on a mission to China. This was to mark
the beginning of close academic ties with China
and the Mekong Delta, with which various associations and scholarships were instituted.
Since then Groep T has become involved in
solar energy and particularly in solar-powered
cars. They finished 11th in their first World Solar Challenge in 2004, but in 2007 they came
a worthy 2nd. The day they can call themselves
‘champions’ is not so far off.
K.U.Leuven Association
The K.U.Leuven Association comprises 13
institutes of higher education spread over
23 Flemish towns and boroughs. With over
80,000 students, it is by far the biggest
provider of higher education in Flanders.
1466
1512
1514
1523
Birth of Erasmus
(René Rosseel)
Birth of
Mercator
Birth of
Vesalius
Pope’s College
Spin-offs
 Student in Pauscollege |
Pope’s College © Layla Aerts
Lemmens Institute
The Lemmens Institute was founded in 1879
by all the bishops in Belgium as the Higher Institute for Church Music in Mechelen where the
archbishopric already had an organ and carillon
school. The Belgian bishops wanted to improve
church music and wanted to call upon JacquesNicolas Lemmens, a Flemish organ teacher at
the Brussels Conservatoire. Lemmens died on 30
January 1881. Under the tutelage of his successors, the educational model shifted from merely
organ playing, Gregorian music and choral music
to musical theory, choir direction and composition. The syllabus also expanded considerably.
Since 1968 the Lemmens Institute has been accommodated at Gasthuisberg, where it has
sought a closer connection with the official structure of education, in the aftermath of the Second
Vatican Council. The study of rather underrated
church music is being placed on a higher plane,
while on the other hand horizons are being expanded to include non-church music.
A spin-off is a company that is spawned by another company or a university. Such companies
commercialise an invention or discovery, usually
made during doctoral research, and integrate it
in a business structure. K.U.Leuven has a long
tradition of this. In the last 35 years the increased
entrepreneurship of researchers, combined with
the support offered by the technology transfer
agency K.U.Leuven Research & Development,
has led to over 80 spin-off companies. Altogether they achieve sales of over 400 million
euro and employ around 3,500 people. These
include both highly educated academics and
foreigners. Well-known spin-offs include IMEC,
LMS, ICOS, IPCOS, Materialise, Metris, Data4s,
reMynd and Thrombogenics.
IMEC
The Flemish Interuniversity Microelectronics
Centre, IMEC for short, has been on extension
of the Arenberg Campus since 1985. It was
formed by Professor Baron Roger Van Overstraeten in 1984 with Flemish Government
funding as a joint initiative of the universities of Brussels, Ghent and Leuven. The huge
building houses a kind of superlab that does
pioneering work in the microelectronics field.
Since then IMEC has grown into Europe’s biggest independent research centre for nanotechnology and nanoelectronics. Over 1,650
staff from throughout the world are working on such things as applications for better
health care, smart electronics, renewable energy and safe transport.
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1547
1569
1835
1879
Birth of
Justus Lipsius
Van Dale College
Foundation of
Catholic University
in Leuven
Foundation of
Lemmens Institute
 Campusbibliotheek Arenberg | Campus Library Arenberg
All pervasive the university and its campuses
In Leuven an innocent tourist who asks
the way to the university will attract pitying looks from the locals: the university
is everywhere and nowhere. In the first
place, it is a network of faculties and institutes, housed in old and new buildings
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strewn across the entire town. The humanities
are concentrated in the town centre (Town
Campus), the exact and applied sciences are
lodged on the Arenberg Campus, and the biomedical sciences have moved with the hospital
to the Gasthuisberg Campus.
1968
1971
1975
Split between KUL and UCL
Establishment of Gasthuisberg
University Hospital
The University donates the statue
‘Fonske’ (Jef Claerhout) to the Town
Town Campus
Professors and traders’ cries
The Town Campus is the child of the old university, since part of the Cloth Hall was made
available immediately after the university’s
foundation. Professors and traders’ cries and
the shouting and bustle of hawkers and students were heard there together for years. Over
the course of time, however, the Cloth Hall became too small for both activities and the traders’ cries disappeared. Nowadays the University
Hall houses the university’s administrative headquarters, including the Rectoral Offices and the
Registrar’s Office, where enrolment takes place.
Of another old university building only the 18th
century portico now remains, which serves as
the entrance for the brand new Museum M.
Clusters
With its many colleges, Naamsestraat, which is
also the location of the University Hall, may be
considered ‘the university’s main street’. Many
university buildings are clustered together to
the east of the street, connected by a network
of shortcuts and courtyards.
The first cluster is that of the true humanities
headed by the theologians, who have appropriately moved into the delightfully restored
­Veterans’ College. From their superbly appointed library, they enter into dialogue with both
science and society. The sages of the Institute of
Philosophy are accommodated in the intimate
setting of a neo-gothic building. ­Psychologists
and educationalists occupy premises nearby
and the Faculty of Letters resides in the ­Erasmus
Building, a concrete colossus in the shadow of
the university library.
Its vast scale, location and festive architecture
undoubtedly make the library the most striking
building in the university. Its clock tower dominates the skyline and it has become a true landmark. Its dazzling interior is well-known from
television and publicity material. The impressive
reading room where students swot and chill has
progressively become a symbol of learning.
The Faculty of Law has moved into the old De
Valk College. This outshines all the rest and its
18th century grandeur lends budding lawyers the
status they need.
Municipal Park
The Faculty of Economics is headquartered in
the 17th century College of the High Hill, with
extensions on the edge of the Municipal Park.
­Mercury, the god of trade and thieves, rises from
a fishpond. Completely surrounded by university buildings, the park has become something
of a university garden.
At the top of the park there is the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, one of Europe’s
top business schools. It provides managers with
intensive training for modern business life. A
stone’s throw away there is the Faculty of ­Social
Sciences. This complex - built quickly in 1960,
the time of expansion and democratisation was long the black sheep of the family. Refurbishment and the building of new lecture halls
and living accommodation have given its internal area a totally contemporary appearance.
The lecture theatres are named after the politician Jean Monet and the sociologist Max Weber
who laid the foundations for the ­European Union and modern sociology respectively.
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1984
2000
2000-2004
Formation of Imec
UNESCO recognises
Large Beguinage as
a world heritage site
Conception and creation
Totem (Jan Fabre)
© Layla Aerts
Campus Libraries
Board & lodging
K.U.Leuven has excellent traditional and hypermodern library facilities, which are spread
out over the entire university and together
make up the university library. Besides the
Central Library in the town centre, you can
also find campuses with their own libraries at
Gasthuisberg, Arenberg and Kortrijk. Besides
these, every faculty in the Humanities and Social Sciences Group has its own library.
Buildings for education and research highlight
the townscape of the southeast part of the town.
Students also had to be housed and fed - and
hence facilities for students have also helped
to define the scene. Originally students took up
residence in privately run colleges where they
were given food and lodging. Magnificent buildings with courtyards and kitchen maids, a
president and college rules, a studious atmosphere and student derring-do.
The University Library Services perform the
task of preparing policy and cover services
that are required for efficient operation of the
university library as a whole. Just think of the
digital library, cataloguing policy, pool staff,
inter-library document supply (= distribution
and use of electronic documents relating to
the library) for the Central Library and humanities, etc.
K.U.Leuven is the only one in continental ­Europe
whose colleges have retained their original
function: Holy Ghost College, a delightful urban
palace and also the oldest college; the Pope’s
College with its impressive courtyard; the highly charming, Italianate Van Dale College (with
cortile and campanile) and the Oxford-like
­Justus Lipsius College.
In the meantime professors and students have
even laid their hands on the Great Beguinage,
which was originally built for pious women and
has since been classified as a World Heritage Site
by Unesco. Other colleges are now used for education and research. Quite recently the veterina­
rians and physicists have been the latest scientists to put down roots in the heart of the town,
at the King’s and Premonstratensian Colleges respectively. The lion’s share of the scientists have
moved to the Arenberg Campus outside the town
and the medics have found room to breathe at
Gasthuisberg. Only the extremely rare Anatomy
Theatre - Padua and Uppsala also have one - and
the Botanical Gardens with a lovely orangery the former Hortus of the medical faculty - remind
us that there was once an embryonic medical
campus here, right by the town hospital.
 Campusbibliotheek | Campus Library Arenberg
2002
2002
2006
Opening of Arenberg
Campus Library
Opening of STUK Arts Centre
Establishment of KH Leuven
campus on the Gasthuisberg
site
Arenberg Campus
When you drive into Leuven, you will be struck
immediately by how green the surroundings
still are. This green lung is formed by the combination of the Arenberg Campus with Heverlee
Forest and the Meerdaal Forest. Thanks to the
German Arenberg family - which donated the
estate to the University after WW1 - the departments of Science and Technology have found
themselves majestic accommodation there. At
a time when every university was looking for
space to house its scientific institutes, ­Arenberg
Castle - with its aristocratic towers and battlements - was a godsend for K.U.Leuven, which
laid the first stone of the Departments of
­Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgy and Chemical Engineering there as long ago as 1922.
Although the machine hall of the Thermotechnical Institute, with its steam engine in the middle,
has become an attraction for industrial archaeologists, the campus has expanded considerably,
been modernised and matched to the pace of
technological progress.
In the park you also regularly come across
greenhouses and hothouses. These belong to
the agri­cultural institute, which is, among other
things, the world centre for the cultivation of
bananas and stands to the right of the castle.
The Electrical Engineering Institute has also
taken root there. Just outside the town, FABER,
the Faculty of Kinesiology and Rehabilitation
Sciences, has extensive facilities consisting of
a venerable gymnasium, a trendy fitness building plus sports fields and training grounds, an
athletics track and swimming pool and a large
multi-functional sports hall.
FABER was established in 1937 by the young
lecturer P.P. De Nayer who, at the request of
the rector, Mgr. Ladeuze, was to develop lectures on sports medicine, to rejuvenate student
sports and attend to the building of a sports
institute.The success of the course and the indoor sports ensured that a complete large, new
sport complex was opened in 1969, ushering in
a new epoch in the history of Leuven university
sport. Out of gratitude to the driving force behind it, the complex was named after Professor
De Nayer.
The best kept secret of the Arenberg Campus
is the Arenberg Campus Library (CBA), which
resides in the former Celestine monastery in
de Croylaan. It is one of the biggest and most
modern science and engineering libraries in
continental Europe. CBA houses a million books
and reference works under one roof. Students,
academics, alumni and other visitors can work
there in a high tech environment full of multimedia solutions.
In an open riverside landscape, just outside
the park on the other side of the Dijle, we find
the white buildings of the Faculty of Science:
mathe­matics and physics, IT and chemistry and
recently also the earth sciences, which are most
appropriately housed in a striking red brick building. By the motorway the campus is fringed by
the ‘science park’, brand new quarters for spinoffs from the university.
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 Campus Gasthuisberg
Gasthuisberg Campus
For many Flemings ‘Going to Leuven’ means
­either ‘going to university’, or ‘going to the best
hospital in the country’. In 1971 after the embryonic teaching hospital in the town had been
struggling with lack of space, the ideal place for
a completely new medical campus with hospital
and teaching accommodation was found on the
ridge above the town known as Gasthuisberg.
Modern management, a concentration of highly
qualified medics and the dedicated efforts of
the clinical staff have since made UZ Leuven one
of Europe’s top hospitals. It is the biggest European hospital after Rome. In 2007 the Gasthuisberg Campus Master Plan Project began, under
which all medical services will be concentrated
on the campus: education, research, general
hospital, day hospital and a public part with
civic functions (a hotel, shops, student accommodation). The whole project will be complete
in 2020.
 Campus Gasthuisberg
UZ Leuven is responsible for
2,4 million visitors a year
Bed days: 533,042
Hospitalised patients: 64,287
Outpatient visits: 635,513
Central medical archives: 2,500,000 files
UZ Leuven has
•
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•
•
•
•
•
47 operating theatres
7 intensive care units
49 wards
1,955 staffed beds
around 56,000 m² of corridors
8,500 m² of stair cases
7,225 m² of toilets
The hospital’s central kitchen
serves 5,500 meals a day. The hospital’s cafeterias open their doors to 7,450
hungry customers every day. That means
that around 5,800 servings of soup. The
bakery supplies more than 700 loaves of
bread, 500 baguettes, 1,600 pastries and
150 pies every day.
And every year 10,000 TL bulbs are replaced on all the campuses.
The cleaning crew, which employs approximately 550 people, is responsible
for cleaning, disinfecting and maintaining
the approximately 300,000 m² premises.
Heads that
have shaped
history
 Mercator (Raoul Biront)
Desiderius Erasmus
Andreas Vesalius
In the 16 century Europe was a theological
­battleground. One of the critical voices came
from Desiderius Erasmus. He represents the
true spirit of humanism, which argues for free
will and the dignity of man.
Erasmus regarded himself as a ‘citizen of the
world’ or ‘non-citizen’. He criticised ‘his’ Europe
and profited from the art of printing to spread
his Latin texts everywhere. He lived in England
for a while, where he formed a lifelong friendship with Thomas More, the author of Utopia.
At More’s urging Erasmus wrote The Praise of
Folly. By starting out with a fool as the speaker
he was able to mock the misplaced seriousness
with which all men, no matter what their trade,
rank or position, howl about their own interests
and the short-sightedness with which they form
their opinions of one another.
As a humanist, Erasmus studied classical texts in
their original languages. He finally wrote a new
Latin translation of the New Testament with the
Greek original as its starting point. When Maarten
Luther used that translation as the basis of his
German version, things got out of hand. Despite
his good intentions and vain attempts, Erasmus
did not succeed in reconciling the Christians of
his times. In 1559 he was branded a heretic for
his supposed part in the Reformation. His works
appeared on the list of prohibited books.
On his tour of Europe, Erasmus also visited the
Netherlands. He stayed in Brussels, Mechelen,
Antwerp and Leuven. In Leuven, he founded the
Three Languages College or Collegium ­Trilingue
with the aim of promoting the teaching of classical languages, Greek, Hebrew and Latin, which
are necessary to read the classics in their original. His Collegium Trilingue was later home to
many prominent scholars, such as Mercator,
­Vesalius and Dodoens.
Vesalius was a Flemish doctor and anatomist of
German origin. He is considered the founder of
modern human anatomy thanks to his first complete book on the human body.
Andreas Vesalius was born Andries van Wesele
in Brussels in 1514, to a family of distinguished
physicians. Just like his father and grandfather
before him, the young Andreas decided to study
medicine - first at the University of Leuven, then
some years in Paris and back to Leuven again,
where he obtained the Bachelor of Medicine
degree in 1537.
After that he went to Padua where he took the
degree of doctor of medicine that very year.
In Vesalius’ time, the study of the human body was
still taught just as the Greek Galen had stipulated
centuries before. But Vesalius was curious and
headstrong. He anatomised corpses and gradually established that Galen had never seen the inside of a human. Vesalius’ magnificently illustrated
work, De Humani Corporis Fabrica (On the Fabric
of the Human Body) refutes the old notions. He
unleashed a revolution in medical thought.
After he had dedicated his masterpiece to the
Emperor Charles, he was promptly appointed as
the emperor’s personal physician, and later that
of his son Phillip II. He was one of the most successful doctors of his day. The story has it that
at night, like a Dr. Frankenstein, he went steeling
corpses from the gallows-lea so that he could
carry out dissections on them. But the bulk of his
‘dissection material’ was actually simply made
available. Dissections of humans were allowed,
but at first only one per year, in the winter.
Vesalius died on the Greek island of Zakynthos on 15 October 1564. He was on his way to
­Jerusalem, but ended up on the island because
of a ship wreck. His grave has never been found,
which has led to the wildest speculations.
th
11
 Erasmus (René Rosseel)
Justus Lipsius
Gerard Mercator
The important cartographer Gerard Mercator
(1512-1594), chiefly known for his world and
celestial atlases, was born in Rupelmonde on 5
March 1512 as Gheert Cremer. In his youth he
received instruction from his great uncle, the
then pastor of the hospice in Rupelmonde.
The young Gerard initially went to study mathe­
matics in Leuven. Later he stayed there for
many years to work as a land surveyor.
Mercator was a special kind of cartographer.
Most of his colleagues were simple craftsmen, who began as booksellers, silversmiths or
something of the kind. But Mercator was different. He was a learned man who was extremely
interested in the cosmos. On his 24th birthday
he married Barbara Schellekens, probably a
Leuven lady, by whom he had six children, all of
whom were baptised in St. Peter’s Church. Mercator and his family lived in Schrijnmakersstraat
off Mechelsestraat. The Three Languages College (Collegium Trilingue) founded by Erasmus,
of whom he was a frequent guest, is in the same
neighbourhood. His great dream was to draw an
all-embracing atlas of the earth and heavens.
On this 40th birthday Mercator left Leuven to
settle in Duisburg and continue working on his
atlas there. However, he was never to finish it.
He actually died in Duisburg in 1594 while the
definitive version of his atlas was only published
in 1695. The book - which was finished by his
descendants - is so much better than the work
of his competitors that it very quickly became
a renowned work and much in demand. The atlas was even translated from Latin into different
languages, always under the title ‘Atlas’. This is
how our English word ‘Atlas’ came to mean a
book of maps. In astronomy, where Atlas originally belonged (Mercator originally wanted to
write a book of maps of the heavens), his name
is nowadays forgotten.
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The philologist and philosopher Justus Lipsius
was born Joost Lips in Overijse on 18 October
1547. He studied Classical Literature and Law at
the Alma Mater. At the request of Cardinal Granvelle he travelled to Rome with the latter to deal
with his correspondence. He saw the Vatican in
a full-blooded state of crisis but he also learned
about Roman antiquity, the Vatican libraries
and humanism.
After a diversion via Vienna, he ended up back
in his parental home in Overijse in 1574 and went
to teach in Leuven. However, he did not take to
the tense environment of the Southern Nether­
lands and moved to the Calvinist University of
William of Orange in Leiden where he flourished completely. When the wet and foggy climate of the north began to weigh on his health,
he moved back to Leuven where he was once
again allowed to give lectures.
As a professor he employed an unusual and surprisingly modern method of teaching. He also
paid great heed to the personal tutoring of his
pupils. He befriended a group of some seven
students who lodged with him, chiefly in the period between 1595 and 1601. They were mainly
sons of influential friends who had expressly requested the favour.
Severely ill, Lipsius died childless at his house in
Leuven during the night of 24 to 25 March 1606.
According to Montaigne the most learned man
of his time died in him.
Dirk Bouts
In St. Peter’s Church there are some world-famous paintings, including ones by Dieric Bouts.
Once he had finished his training, Bouts, born
in Haarlem, settled in Leuven - a town that was
quickly to achieve great renown for its newly
founded university - as a painter in 1448.
After the death of his wife Katharina van de
Bruggen by whom he had two sons and two
daughters, he wedded Elisabeth van Voshem,
daughter of the then mayor, in 1474.
Through his well-placed family, more than one
member of which was a prominent burgess,
Dirk Bouts immediately acquired a good name
in Leuven. After he had painted The Last Supper in 1464, he was himself appointed masterpainter to the town in Leuven, where died on
6 May 1475. His body was placed in the Franciscan church alongside that of his first wife.
Student
in Leuven
 Aula Van Evenstraat
Broadening the mind
K.U.Leuven Culture Coordination
Everywhere in the town you will find companionable cafés, trendy restaurants and nifty clubs
to suit everyone’s taste and pocket.
Culture vultures can have a whale of a time in
Leuven too. The programmes offered through
and by the university and colleges are multifaceted and appeal to the imagination of the
student population. Theatre, dance, literature,
films, pop, rock or classical music, visual art ...
These have already become an established
part of the students’ cultural world.
K.U.Leuven Culture Coordination is housed in
the STUK Arts Centre and guides students and
staff through Leuven’s extensive cultural re­
pertoire. Culture Coordination itself organises
the free cultural series ‘UUR KULtUUR ’ and
coordinates and supports the operations of the
eight University Ensembles and the university
carillon.
STUK
Naamsestraat 96, 3000 Leuven
The ‘STUK’ arts centre makes its presence clear
by big metal letters on Naamsestraat. As a
former university building it is located amid different university establishments.
The building (architects Neutelings Riedijk,
Antwerp-Rotterdam) is erected around a public patio onto which various ‘rooms’ open, including a cinema, the STUKcafé, an auditorium,
business premises, offices and a theatre. On
the patio ar-tists, visitors and passers by meet
one another, and a different world lurks behind
every door.
This building is jewel in the crown of the town
planning vision that both town and university
employ in the town centre. Time and again,
dozens of alleyways, unexpected perspectives,
and walking past centuries-old and modern
buildings bring discovery of new parts of this
town, which is also literally interwoven with the
university.
Naamsestraat 96, 3000 Leuven
Fakbars
A Fakbar is a popular meeting place for students,
unique in Flanders. Each faculty of K.U.Leuven
has its own fakbar. The students man the pumps
themselves and the beer is at student prices.
Just pop in on a Thursday evening, the night
out for Leuven students. You will find most of
the fakbars in Tiensestraat.
• Capsule
Parkstraat 4, 3000 Leuven
Faculty: Pharmaceutical and
Educational Sciences.
• Délibéré
Tiensestraat 146, 3000 Leuven
Faculty: Groep T.
• Doc’s Bar
Brusselsestraat 246, 3000 Leuven
Faculty: Medicine.
• Dulci
Tiensestraat 77, 3000 Leuven
Faculty: Applied Economics and Business
Science.
13
• Elixir
De Waaiberg, Tervuursevest 60,
­3000 ­Leuven
Faculty: Civil Engineering and Architectural
Engineering.
• Fak Letteren
Blijde Inkomststraat 11, 3000 Leuven
Faculty: Literature.
• Gnorgl
Waversebaan 71, 3001 Heverlee
Faculty: Agricultural and Applied Biological
Sciences.
• Huis der Rechten
Tiensestraat 53, 3000 Leuven
Faculty: Law.
• Pavlov
Tiensestraat 51, 3000 Leuven
Faculty: Psychology.
• Politika Kaffee
Tiensestraat 55, 3000 Leuven
Faculty: Social Sciences.
• Sportzak
Tervuursevest 60, 3000 Leuven
Faculty: Kinesiology and Rehabilitation
Sciences.
• Alegria
Oude Markt, 3000 Leuven
Faculty: KHLeuven (Health Care and
Technology).
• Cuythoek
Kapucijnenvoer 5, 3000 Leuven
Faculty: KHLeuven (Department of Social
Work, Heverlee) and Dentistry.
• The Pocket
Minckelersstaat 76, 3000 Leuven
Faculty: KHLeuven (Rega).
• RC
Arenbergpark (Alma 3), 3000 Leuven
Faculty: Mathematics, IT and Physics.
• Weirdo’s
Naamsestraat 32, 3000 Leuven
Faculty: Criminological Sciences and
KHLeuven (ECHO)
Student Restaurants
What is ALMA
ALMA is the unit that runs K.U.Leuven’s restaurants and cafeterias. As a student or member of
staff you can eat at a very democratic price.
The idea of organising a cheap restaurant for
students arose shortly after the Second World
War. After initial short-lived initiatives it got
to the point that ‘ALMA’ opened for business
in Bondgenotenlaan on 15 February 1954. You
paid 6 Belgian francs for breakfast, 24 for lunch
and 20 for dinner. A cold buffet and a milk bar
were also provided.
Over the decades that followed ALMA was to
go through a number of expansions, acquisitions and modernisations that without exception had a single unchanging aim in mind: to
offer healthy, varied meals, hot and cold drinks
that meet students’ expectations of both food
and price.
In 2003 management and staff agreed on a
massive restructuring to get ALMA back on
track. Today the student restaurants are ready
for the next 50 years.
Most student restaurants are closed on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays - the days
when, in theory, the students are not in Leuven.
For practical details: www.alma.be
ALMA restaurants in Leuven
• Alma 1
Tiensestraat 115, 3000 Leuven
• Alma 2
E. Van Evenstraat 2C, 3000 Leuven
• Alma 3
Arenberg 1 (Steengroevelaan), 3001 Leuven
• Alma Gasthuisberg
Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven
• Alma Pauscollege
Hogeschoolplein 3, 3000 Leuven
• De Moete
Celestijnenlaan 200 P, 3001 Leuven
• De Spuye
Tervuursevest101, 3001 Leuven
• ’t Academisch Kwartiertje
Tiensestraat 41, 3000 Leuven
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© Johan Vancutsem - 't Oogenblik fotografie
Aha! Footsteps of Science
Walk yourself wise
All the different faculties of the University of
Leuven - 14 in total - and the three Leuven colleges think a lot about life. They are currently
carrying out some innovative research. They
are looking for tangible things that can improve
the quality of our lives. What are they working
on and developing behind the scenes? You can
find out all about it along the free Aha! SciSteps
walking route. A large panel has been set up
in front of each of the faculties and colleges
with an explanation in Dutch, French, German,
English and Spanish about their findings, about
what they are working on, and with some interesting information about the building in which
they’re working. If you walk the 13 kilometres
(6 km in the city centre), you can pick up a
fair amount of knowledge. A healthy mind in a
healthy body.
15
L E UVEN | FLANDERS | BELGIUM
TOuRISM LEUVEN
Open from 10:00 to 17:00, Monday to Sunday.
Closed on public holidays and associated days and Sundays from the first of November
to the end of February.
t +32 (0)16 20 30 20 - f +32 (0)16 20 30 03 - [email protected] - www.visitleuven.be
Colofon
The greatest care has been taken over the accuracy
and up-to-dateness of the information published in
this guide. Tourism Leuven declines all liability for
any errors. Neither is the publisher liable for changes
after the date of publication. Any comments and
changes may be communicated to infogids@leuven.
be.
This series also includes:
street wise in Leuven
architecture and sculptures
group tours and day trips
lodging in Leuven
cycling and walking
events and activities
P R I C E : v 1 ,0 0