ICAME 33 :: Venue

Conference venue

The venue of the conference is the Grand Béguinage of Leuven, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Leuven Béguinage ("Groot Begijnhof") was founded in 1232 as a community of women devoted to religious life. The béguines ("begijnen") did not take perpetual vows and did not take a vow of poverty; they kept their own property and supported themselves. The Béguinage was founded outside the city walls of the time. The oldest remaining houses date from the 16th century, when the original houses were replaced by brick structures; most houses currently remaining date from the 17th and 18th centuries. The church, dedicated to saint John the Baptist, is early gothic; its date of construction, 1305, is carved into the right buttress of the north portal. Approximately 300 beguines lived in the Leuven béguinage in the 17th century.

The Béguinage was taken over by the welfare commission in 1925. Except for the church, it was sold to the university in 1962 under the condition that the entire complex be restored. A year later the restoration began under the direction of professor Raymond Lemaire.

The Béguinage today is a university residential quarter for students, professors, visiting professors and administrative staff at the university. There are about 100 houses, accommodating some 480 inhabitants. The former infirmary of the Béguinage has been converted into the Faculty Club, a place for the university staff to meet (and eat). The 16th century Convent of Chièvres at the heart of the Béguinage has been converted into a congress centre.

For more information you can turn to the following sources:

• Faculty Club website: a short history of the Béguinage
• Wikipedia: a detailed sketch of the historical background and architecture of the Béguinage
• UNESCO World Heritage Convention website: documentation on Flemish Béguinages
• Maarten Jansen's website: pictures and a historical overview
• University of Leuven website: the béguinage as a university hall of residence (website mostly in Dutch)

The city and university of Leuven

The Flemish historic town of Leuven is located at the centre of Belgium, at a stone's throw from its capital Brussels, and is home to the oldest university of the Low Countries, founded in 1425.

For more information you can turn to the following sources:

• The city of Leuven's excellent tourism website
• A short history of the University of Leuven

In view of its central location, Leuven forms a perfect hub from which you can explore other cities and regions in Belgium and indeed Europe, thanks to high-speed international rail connections from Brussels:

• Visit Belgium
• Visit Flanders
• Visit Wallonia
• B-Europe: train connections to all of Belgium's neighbouring countries