Justus Lipsius College

History. Around 1860, the University of Leuven purchased the land with the remaining buildings of the former Ursuline monastery (1659), which had been dissolved and sold in 1798. The monastery was located on a triangular plot formed by two arms of the Dijle river. The Justus Lipsius College was established in 1893 in part of the old buildings as a pedagogy for students in medicine and the sciences. From 1877 to 1879, the complex was completely renovated according to the plans of Joris Helleputte (1852-1925). For the execution, Helleputte would refuse to rely on the construction industry. He directly approached a number of master craftsmen, each of whom took on part of the work and completed it collectively with their best workers in a short time. According to his own account, the construction of the Justus Lipsius College was the basis for the "Guild of Crafts and Trades" he co-founded in Leuven between 1878 and 1885.

Onroerend Erfgoed Vlaanderen