The Grote Markt (; "Big Market") is the central

square In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

Flemish Brabant Flemish Brabant ( ; ) is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on (clockwise from the North) the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, Liège, Walloon Brabant, Hainaut and East Flanders. Flemish Brabant also ...

, Belgium. It is situated between the Oude Markt ("Old Square") and the Rector De Somerplein ("Rector De Somer Square", named for

Pieter De Somer Pieter De Somer (22 December 1917 – 17 June 1985) was a Belgian physician and biologist. He studied medicine from 1935 up to 1942 at the Catholic University of Leuven (Leuven, Belgium). He did research and later became a professor at the Depa ...

, the first rector of the autonomous Dutch-speaking

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In addition to its main camp ...

(KU Leuven) in 1968) and near both the Bondgenotenlaan ("Avenue of the Allied Forces") and the Muntstraat ("Mint Street"). The Grote Markt's location on the crossing of some of Leuven's most famous and most touristic spots make it one of the city's busiest squares. It has been pedestrian-friendly for some years; only public transportation buses from

De Lijn Vlaamse Vervoersmaatschappij De Lijn (, ), more commonly known as De Lijn, is a state-owned enterprise run by the Flemish government in Belgium to provide public transport with about 2240 buses and 399 trams. De Lijn was founded in 1991 after the ...

are allowed to use the square.

History and buildings

The Grote Markt's location is one of the oldest and most historic in all of Leuven. The square has existed in its present form since the 14th century, when the

Old University of Leuven The Old University of Leuven (or of Louvain) is the name historians give to the Medieval university, university, or ''studium generale'', founded in Leuven, Duchy of Brabant, Brabant (then part of the Burgundian Netherlands, now part of Belgium ...

was established. Most of the square's buildings are built in the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

style, of which the

Town Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

is a prime example. Other buildings on the Grote Markt are the Church of St. Peter and several

guildhall A guildhall, also known as a guild hall or guild house, is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Europe, with many surviving today in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commo ...

s. As throughout Leuven, there are also many pubs, taverns, and eateries on the Grote Markt. There is a significant contrast between the more formal and traditional style establishments on the Grote Markt and the more trendy, youth-oriented and student entertainment spots on the nearby Oude Markt.

Events

The Grote Markt is often used for cultural and other events, as is the case for Leuven's other big squares, such as the Oude Markt and the Mgr. Ladeuzeplein ("Mgr. Ladeuze Square"),

Flower Carpet

One yearly event is the transformation of the Grote Markt into one large flower carpet. Each year celebrates a particular theme, such as 2007's ''Bicentennial of the Leuven Fire Department''. In 2005, an administrative mistake caused the yearly flower carpet, completely made of

begonia ''Begonia'' is a genus of perennial flowering plants in the family Begoniaceae. The genus contains more than 2,000 different plant species. The Begonias are native to moist subtropical and tropical climates. Some species are commonly grown ...

s that year, to coincide with the opening and start of the local cycling contest, named after

Jef Scherens Joseph "Jef" Scherens (17 February 1909 – 9 August 1986), better known as Poeske Scherens, was a Belgian professional track cyclist, specializing in sprint where he won seven World Championships. Biography Early life Jef Scherens was ...

. To avoid having the cyclists start their contest out of the middle of the flower carpet, then-mayor

Louis Tobback Louis Marie Joseph Tobback (born 3 May 1938) is a Belgian politician. Tobback is a Flemish social democrat and member of the political party SP.A. He was the mayor of Leuven (1995–2018) He graduated in Romance philology at the Vrije Univer ...

proposed a compromise: the cyclists would start their race from the outskirts of the square instead of the centre, and as compensation, the theme of that year's flower carpet would be the ''Tribute to Cycling''.

Summer Events

Being a university town, Leuven undergoes a drastic decrease in its usual population when thousands of students go home for the summer. For the last twenty odd years, the city of Leuven tries to compensate for the lack of students (along with their associated social activities) by organising a number of summer events. Some of these taking place on the Grote Markt, among other spots in town, are: * Beleuvenissen: weekly concerts on Friday nights in July, with themes such as salsa, tropical, jazz, blues. * Hapje-Tapje (literally: ''a little snack-a small drink'', approximately pronounced in English as ''hap-yeh, tap-yeh''): a gastronomical ''market'' during which participating restaurants set up stalls on the streets and squares of Leuven and offer small plates of their best food for a bargain price.

Planting of the Meyboom

One of the oldest events is the planting of the

Meyboom The Meyboom (French language, French, former Dutch language, Dutch spelling) or Meiboom (modern Dutch) plantation is the oldest tradition in Brussels, Belgium, attested since 1308. It is held every year on 9 August, the eve of Saint Lawrence, ...

(" May tree" – in fact, a corruption of the Dutch word, meaning ''tree of joy'') which, in contrast with the British version, is not a pole as such but an actual tree, usually a large

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...

tree. The origin of the Meyboom celebration in Leuven is reminiscent of the town's long-standing (folkloric) feud with neighbouring

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

.''Meibomen in Brussel en Leuven probleemloos geplant'', ''Het Laatste Nieuws'' (in Dutch), 9 August 2014 The tradition goes back seven centuries, and according to the local folklore, commemorates a victory of Brussels over Leuven, although others claim the origin was a wedding ceremony during which a nobleman from Leuven married a lower class girl from Brussels. The nobleman then gave money to celebrate

Saint Lawrence Saint Lawrence or Laurence (; 31 December 225 – 10 August 258) was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the Persecution of Christians, persecution of the Christians that the Roman Empire, Rom ...

, the local

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

, and plant a tree of joy or ''Meyboom'' in his honour. The legend is told slightly differently in Brussels than in Leuven. It claims that one day in 1213, a wedding was held in a

guinguette The guinguette (), originating in the 17th century, was a type of popular tavern in the suburb, suburbs of Paris and of other cities in France. The term comes from ''guinguet'', a type of cheap green wine served there. A ''goguette'' was a simi ...

(i.e. small

tavern A tavern is a type of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that ...

) just outside Brussels. During the festivities, the guests noticed a gang of troublemakers from Leuven. A fight broke out, and just when the wedding guests from Brussels were losing the fight, the ''Companions of St Lawrence'', a city

guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular territory. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradespeople belonging to a professional association. They so ...

, came to their rescue. The Leuven gang lost and Duke Henri I of Brabant gave the guild members permission to plant the

each year on 9 August; but this privilege would be lost if ever the people of Leuven managed to capture the tree before 5 p.m.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* {{cite book, last1=Henne, first1=Alexandre, last2=Wauters, first2=Alphonse, title=Histoire de la ville de Bruxelles, volume=1, location=Brussels, language=fr, publisher=Périchon, year=1845, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u_pAAAAAcAAJ Squares in Leuven Buildings and structures in Leuven Tourist attractions in Leuven