The Dukes of Arenberg lived here until the First World War. Then they gave it away, and students of building took the rooms.
At a glance
The castle stands at Heverlee, just south of Leuven, in a park with a moat and a watermill. A castle of the lords of Heverlee stood on the site in the Middle Ages; the house you see was rebuilt in the sixteenth century by the Croÿ family, and from 1612 it belonged to the Dukes of Arenberg, who lived in it until the First World War. It passed to the university in 1916, and it now holds the Faculty of Engineering Science and the Department of Architecture of KU Leuven. The whole castle has been a protected monument since 1980.
Key facts
- Medieval site: the castle of the lords of Heverlee
- Sold: in 1445 to the Croÿ family, from Picardy (one source gives 1446)
- Rebuilt: first half of the sixteenth century, begun under Guillaume II de Croÿ and completed by his nephew Philip II van Croÿ, who added the moat
- To the Arenbergs: after the death of Charles III of Croÿ in 1612, through his sister Anna; the dukes lived here until the First World War
- To the university: donated in 1916; some accounts date the formal acquisition to 1920
- Today: the Faculty of Engineering Science and the Department of Architecture of KU Leuven
- Protected: the whole castle since 1980; the park is a protected villagescape
- GPS: 50.8633, 4.6836 · Open in Google Maps
History
The lords of Heverlee held the site from the Middle Ages, and lost it the way such families usually did: they ran out of money. In 1445 they sold to the Croÿ, a Picard family on the rise. The Croÿ did what new owners do, and rebuilt. The work began in the first half of the sixteenth century under Guillaume II de Croÿ and was finished by his nephew Philip II, who gave the house its moat.
Charles III of Croÿ died in 1612 without a direct heir, and the castle went through his sister Anna to the Dukes of Arenberg. They kept it for three centuries. The Arenbergs were among the great princely families of the Low Countries, and Heverlee was their seat until the First World War ended that way of living.
In 1916 the duke gave the domain to the university at Leuven; the formal acquisition is sometimes dated 1920. It has been university ground ever since, and the campus that grew around it took the castle’s name.
Who is there now
The castle is the central building of KU Leuven’s Arenberg campus, the university’s science and technology quarter. It houses the Faculty of Engineering Science and the Department of Architecture. The people who study the conservation of buildings here do it inside one: a sixteenth-century house with a moat, kept as a working teaching building rather than a museum.
What you see
A long brick front with stone dressings and corner towers, set behind water, with a park and a watermill in the grounds. The silhouette is sixteenth-century; the later centuries added and adjusted without destroying it. The moat Philip II van Croÿ had dug still holds the reflection, which is the view everyone photographs.
Sources & resources
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