The First and Inner Defence Wall of Leuven: After 1190

In the Early Middle Ages, Leuven was defended by a primitive fence that stretched from the Aardappelmarkt (modern-day Vital Decosterstraat) to the Redingenstraat, while an arm of the River Dijle formed a natural border.

By the 13th century, when the city grew to be the permanent residence of the Count of Leuven and Brussels, the need for a stronger defense bulwark became urgent. Historians have traditionally dated the construction of Leuven’s first defense walls to be between 1156 and 1165, during the reign of Count Godfried III, due to the yearly tax he imposed on citizens for defense. However, the military features of Leuven’s wall such as anchor towers, arrowslits etc cannot date before the 1200s, making this estimate too early. It is now generally accepted that Leuven’s first city wall was built by Henry I (Henrik), the first Duke of Brabant (1190-1235). He also abolished his father’s defense tax in 1233.

Constructed with layers of sandstone from nearby Diegem and Zaventem and ironstone, the first defense wall was roughly 2,740 metres long with 31 watch towers, 11 city gates and 2 water gates.

The wall measures 1.70m thick and rests on a series of underground arches. On the field side, the wall rises to about 5m tall. On the inside, a continuous series of arches supported a three-foot-wide walkway. The wall had arrowslits that were reduced on the outside to a narrow opening of 90cm high and 5cm wide.

However, as the city grew rapidly in size, a second (outer) more impressive defence wall was built in 1357, rendering the inner wall somewhat redundant. But the inner wall and gates were not immediately torn down. Most of it only disappeared in the 18th and 19th centuries. Even so, we see more of Leuven’s inner city wall today than the more recent outer city wall. Very well-preserved remnants of the 12th-13th century wall can still be seen in the City Park, as well as in the Refugehof, the Handbooghof, in the Redingenstraat behind the Irish College, and on the Hertogensite. The outer city wall and gates were torn down completely in the 19th and 20th centuries to become today’s ring road around the city.

Below is the list of the gates of Leuven’s first city wall starting from the north going eastwards:

• Steenpoort
• Heilige-Geestpoort
• Sint-Michielspoort
• Proefstraatpoort
• Wolvenpoort
• Redingenpoort
• Broekstraatpoort/Liemingepoort
• Justus Lipsiustoren-Janseniustoren*
• Minderbroederspoort
• Biestpoort
• Minnepoort
• Borchtpoort
• Sint-Geertruisluis*

*water gates.

How did the Waterpoort look like?

The Waterpoort was and is today still a very impressive site. It consisted of two twin towers connected by a stone bridge. To enter the city by boat in the 12th-13th century, one would have had to pay toll here.

On the right bank (intra-muros), the tower was directly at the back of the property of one of the Seven Clans of Leuven, the family Uten-Lieminghe. In 1511, here stood their city palace, called the Hof van Uten-Lieminghe, which was covered in the white sandstone of Gobertange and had richly decorated windows. This was then sold and became the Hollands College in the 17th century. Today, the tower here is called the Janseniustoren (Jansenius Tower) after Cornelius Jansenius (Cornelius Jansen) the director of the Hollands College.

On the left bank (extra-muros), the tower stood at a fork formed by the river, which split into two: the Grote Dijle (Great Dijle) goes into the city, and the Kleine Dijle (Little Dijle) flowed along the city wall forming its natural moat. At the foot of the tower, was a sluice, which still exists today. Due to the motif of Pulchra Maria, or Beautiful Holy Virgin Mary (Mooie Onze-Lieve-Vrouw) above the front entrance of the Hof van Uten-Lieminghe on the Veemarkt (Cattle Market), this sluice located at the Waterpoort was named the Mooie Onze-Lieve-Vrouw sluis (Sluice of the Beautiful Holy Virgin Mary). The tower is called Justus Lipsiustoren (Justus Lipsius Tower), but it has nothing to do with the famous humanist. The name was to first match the right bank’s tower with an equally renowned personality from Leuven’s past, and also to refer to the Justus Lipsius College located nearby.

The stone bridge that used to link the two towers are long gone. Nevertheless, you can still observe its broken arches on both towers.