My home town Leuven - Louvain is as close as 25km away (East) from Brussels. Brussels and Leuven look quite different today but in the Middle Ages they were rather on equal terms, as they both served as residence for the Dukes of Brabant. No need to tell there was a lot of rivalry between the towns.
They probably have the finest town halls in the world. In the pictures above (Brussels) and below (Leuven), you will notice their resemblance is striking. The late gothic architecture is very rich in detail, the statues were added later in time. The most striking difference between Brussels and Leuven is that Brussels has one large tower, whereas Leuven has six small towers.
The Brussels tower is magnificent, harmonic and elegant. The 6 Leuven towers give the building a lightness and the outlook of a shrine. It seemed that the chosen architectures have been the result of the rivalry and the local constraints. I leave it up to you to choose what you like most. I love both of them very much.
This is an attempt to convince my friends abroad to visit us sometime. Fill out a comment box below to tell us whether you would agree to the title of this blog or not.
Picture 1: www.shutterstock.com
Picture 2: Renata Sedmakova / Shutterstock.com
No comments:
Post a Comment