St. John the Baptist Church

Just outside the city walls, in the Great Beguinage, a chapel in Romanesque style was built in 1305.
This typical church in local Leuven peasant Gothic is notable for its simple basilical floor plan without a transept and with a flat choir end.
The church still shows some Romanesque features such as the heavy buttresses, small upper windows and a stair turret.

Despite its so-called austerity, the Gothic St. John the Baptist Church from 1232 is a gem for me for personal and historical reasons. But there is also a lot to discover, both around the church and inside. What do you think of frescoes from the fourteenth, fifteenth and seventeenth centuries that were found during renovation work? Or the gravestones of literally dozens of beguines and employees of the "court" in the church? And then there are church works but also modern works of art. For example, you will find at least a remarkable Stations of the Cross by sculptor Hilde Van Sumere and a work from 2010 by the ubiquitous Willy Peeters, "Tussen verankering en vrijheid".

This church, located in the Groot Begijnhof, was built in 1232 in Romanesque style. During recent renovation works, unique frescoes from the 14th, 15th and 17th centuries were uncovered.