Administrative Building of KU Leuven

University Hall (Universiteitshal) in Leuven is a medieval cloth hall with 17th and 18th-century extensions that is now the main administrative building of KU Leuven.

Fourteenth-century Leuven was internationally known for its cloth industry. In 1317, construction works began on a cloth hall and it became a market hall with room for offices and storage. The clothes were displayed, measured, inspected, and traded there. At the time, the Hall only consisted of the part of the building giving out on Naamsestraat; the part bordering on Oude Markt was built only later. The Cloth Hall is the oldest example of non-religious architecture from the Gothic period in Brabant.

As of the second half of the 14th century, the Hall was used less and less often for the cloth trade. When its University was founded in 1425, The Cloth Hall became the administrative building of the University. 700 years later, the University Hall is still the place where students come to register.

In the seventeenth century, An extension was built on Oude Markt: the Rega wing, named after Rector Hendrik Jozef Rega.

In the past 70 years, the University Hall has undergone various renovations. In 2017, when the University Hall celebrated its 700th anniversary, the Museum Hall had a makeover. After passing by the reception desk, visitors enter a space with sitting areas, a museum corner, the University Shop, and a coffee corner.

(Source: https://nieuws.kuleuven.be/en/content/2017/museum-hall-becomes-meeting-place-in-the-heart-of-leuven), photo by Aslı Tezcan