Many years ago I got an opportunity to continue my studies in Belgium, and honestly speaking I couldn't miss it. I was super scared and excited at the same time, but I didn't hesitate and as with other things in my life I jumped at this chance with full speed. It turned out to be one of the best decisions in my life because eventually it led me to meet my husband a couple of years later, but I will talk about it another time.
I spent one year at the university in Leuven. I have never heard of this city before, and as soon as I walked out of the train station I fell in love with it. One year flew by much faster than I wanted and suddenly I had to return back to Prague. I still cherish fond memories of the city, my friends and teachers. I didn't have a chance to visit Leuven again until a couple of weeks ago when my cousin visited Brussels with her family where we met them.
Leuven is only about 30 minutes drive from Brussels, and I was so excited to be there again after 16 years! I showed my husband where I lived, where I went to school and even where I did my grocery shopping 😊 There were so many things to show him!
I'm going to show you around too! Today, I will take you to The University library where I spent countless hours during that year. Does that sound boring? Well, it's not a usual library so to speak. Let's go!
Right in front of the library is this gigantic beetle artwork installation called Totem. It's a gift from the university to the city to celebrate its 575th anniversary. The colour resembles the real scarab and it reacts to the light, so it changes depending on where you stand.
I walked by the beetle every single day on the way to school, and totally forgot about it. It was a nice 'surprise' to see it again.
The library building is a true gem itself. Although it is not an old construction it shows the resilience of the city and its inhabitants. When you walk up the bell tower (which other library has a bell tower?) you will learn a lot about its turbulent history, but I will make it easier to you and walk you through it...
The square is usually super crowded, and I would have been happy this time as it wasn't, but instead there was this small 'whatever it is' vehicle, and it was impossible to take a nice photo.
In front of the entrance is an artwork called The Four Elements, or let's say it's one part of that artwork - the second part is placed elsewhere in the city. It was only installed this year and it is built out of four elements (earth, fire, air and water) although I think that it's more in the artistic sense.
There was some mix up with the tickets, so I'm not sure how much we paid in the end, but it wasn't very expensive. We wanted to do the guided tour, but it was fully booked, so instead we went on our own. I knew the library already, and we didn't really need a guide. You can have an audio guide, but you need to download an app which was too much hassle at the moment.
As a visitor you can only visit certain parts of the library not to disturb the students. There are signs to follow, so it's easy.
You can see on the architecture that the building has been reconstructed recently. The library was destroyed during the World War I and later rebuilt, however during the World War II it was burned down again. It is not certain if it was bombed by mistake by the Allies or deliberately by the Nazis. The only thing that is certain is that it had to be completely renovated again.
I was overwhelmed when I entered the library for the first time. There wasn't a lot of information available yet, so it was full of students getting ready for their exams. And there are so many books!
There were a few students there, and we only spent there a couple of minutes as we didn't want to disturb them. Instead we walked one floor up to enter the bell tower...
You enter the bell tower inside of the library. I realized only when I was there that this was part of the bell tower. I have never seen it like that.
There are 5 floors in the bell tower and in each one of them there are displays talking about the history of the library focusing mainly on the World Wars.
The original building dated back to the 15th century as it was established only a few years after the university. Many books were confiscated during the French revolution which was a tragedy on itself, but the building still stood in place.
During the World War I it was burned to ashes by the German troops. This event was named The flames of Leuven. Many buildings were destroyed and way too many people died during one night. In the years leading to the World War II the library managed to collect almost 1000000 books just to have them burned during the bombing. The people of Leuven are persistent and the library was reconstructed again as we see it today.
The first display talks about the flames of Leuven. You can see the library after the attack.
Other displays talk about the reconstruction as well...
There is a typical stone staircase through the first parts of the tower. There is a platform with displays each time until you get to the top. Then there is a metal staircase up to the balcony which was narrow and wobbly. It was really noisy there, and I guess it's because of the large open space.
There are 4 layers of bells, in total more than 60. The only ones that you can see the liberty bell and 6 other bells. However, I have no idea which one is which...
Honestly, we didn't come here for the bells, but for the views. It is much easier to point the buildings that I know from the bird's perspective.
Can you see the high building with the signal tower in the back? I remember all those years ago it was surrounded by large fields. There are so many new buildings around it!
Here we are looking at the beetle of course, but in the back we can also see the main square where I will take you next time...
There are also signs showing you the main landmarks of the city...
Most of these 60 bells are placed in the tower above us...
My school was in this direction...
We were the only ones on the balcony, so we could enjoy the architecture too!
Here you can see that the city consists mainly of long streets, so it's easy to navigate...
And we found this cute painted stone! There are contact details on the back, so you can take the stone and place it somewhere else for somebody else to find. Then you can post a photo on their social media to continue the chain and follow its location. We're going to place it somewhere in the Alps.
The way down was even scarier than the way up, and I didn't enjoy it very much...
See you next time when I will show you more of Leuven 😊