Guildhalls Grote Markt Leuven

The Grote Markt is protected as a cityscape because of the public interest.

Leuven was heavily destroyed in the First World War. In the night of 25 to 26 August 1914, retaliatory actions by German soldiers against alleged 'franc-tireurs' reduced parts of Leuven's city center to ashes. The Bondgenotenlaan, the Grote Markt and the University Library were the most affected.

The reconstruction of the Grote Markt took place in the period just after the liberation. The "Commission for the Facades of the Grote Markt" was established in 1920 especially for the design of the new buildings to be built on the Grote Markt. The facade designs were subjected to a strict assessment by the Commission and had to comply with specific formal and architectural-aesthetic guidelines, of which the limitation of the facade height to 21 to 22 meters, an architectural elaboration inspired by the regional 17th and 18th century styles and the processing of traditional building materials were the most decisive.

Until the late 14th century, the Grote Markt - then called 'Sint-Peetersmerkt' - was mainly the religious center of the city, where the Romanesque St. Peter's Church and the surrounding cemetery determined the image. The political-administrative and especially the economic center of the city was a stone's throw away, on the Oude Markt, which then bore the name 'Grote Markt'. The town hall and the most important guild houses stood there, trade was conducted and there was a busy activity.

Willem Vandenameele