a conflictual creative Open Monumentsday

September 11, 2011: 10 years after the US shook to its foundations, Flanders is devoted to conflict on Open Monumentsday.

I went to Leuven, looking for witnesses of conflict...

a day of conflict between interest and the weather... between the voices of impassioned guides and the yearly Leuven fun fair... between past and present...

CONFLICT IN THE 12th CENTURY: THE FIRST FORTIFICATIONS

not much left...

one of the pieces of the fortification puzzle: a watch-tower close to Leuven's connection to Brussels

nowadays an almost forgotten piece of the city's history behind a vacant hospital

CONFLICT 1914 - 1918: WORLD WAR I

"there was really nothing over"*

the German troups took over the city and sadly burned it down to the ground...

the old university library reduced to ashes; world history in book form was lost

the sac de Louvain struck the entire city centre; everything lay down in ruins... "the blackest day in the history of the city"

only the medieval city hall remained intact... this was the head quarter of the troups.

CONFLICT 1940 - 1945: WORLD WAR II

"there was really nothing over"*

the university library was set on fire; again world history reduced to ashes

Geubels came to have a look...

CONFLICT AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL

but Leuven was not only under the spell of military conflict: Flemish- and French speaking students didn't always live peacefully together

and the exams were of course sometimes cursed

STRUGGLE FOR LIFE (OF MONUMENTS)

let's not forget the everlasting struggle for monuments

in Leuven too one fights for the preservation of monuments.

one of the precious witnesses of university history, a building waiting for decades for its restoration, is the anatomical theatre

eye-catcher for Open Monumentsday 2009, this year the building quietly stood on the outskirts of the city

but hey!   don't forget Leuven's also about students and their parties :)

* inside (Ieper) joke for the MCMS'ers

© kikirpa, Brussel; university library K.U.Leuven, Leuven; city archive, Leuven

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