Tourist Attraction in Leuven:
Het Tafelrond

The Round Table (in Flemish Het Tafelrond) is a historic building in the city of Leuven, Belgium. It rises on the Grote Markt, east of the City Hall, and was built between 1480 and 1487, demolished in 1818 and rebuilt after the First World War. On the site of the current building stood three houses: Tafelront, Sint-Joris Huis Huis Spaegnen (Round Table, House of St George and Casa Spanish). In 1479 the City Council decided to purchase the houses to uniform this side of the Grote Markt to the monumental buildings of the City Hall and the Collegiate, and to welcome the meetings of the House of Rhetoric and the Guilder's Guild. The construction was entrusted to the great architect Matthijs de Layens cities that began in 1480, but was completed in 1487, after the death of the master, by Jan de Mesmakere and took the final name of the Round Table. A late Gothic monumental building emerged, in perfect stylistic alignment with the others in the square. It had a rectangular shape on three floors with three facades of which the main was divided into twelve camps. The large sloping roof surrounded by a perforated balustrade, full of fireplaces and dormers, was all over. Statues of saints stood in narrow niches under canopies. Sculptural decoration was made by Hendrick Keldermans, Jan Maes, Everaert van der Borcht and Otto Van de Putte. In 1553 the building was severely damaged by a fire and was restored in 1556 by Pierre Walraven, which slightly altered its façades, especially at the level of the second floor where it added crushed windows. Subsequently the palace was overlooked for several centuries. The town council ruled on October 25, 1817, at the suggestion of architects Claude Fisco and Jacques Verheyen, that it was demolished. After several uncertainties about what this space was finally approved the project of Charles Vander Straeten for the construction of a neoclassical building designed to shows and concert hall. It was erected between 1829 and 1832, with an auditorium of 980 seats and entrusted to the Société de l'Académie de Musique. The neoclassical building has long been considered a major stylistic mistake, so at the time of its reconstruction, it opted for the original style. It was the Belgian National Bank to fund the yard, in order to reopen a branch in Leuven after losing that on Ladeuzeplein with bombings. The construction of the building was entrusted to the antique architect Maxime Winders (1882-1982), married to the daughter of the director of the Bank, who carried out an accurate historical search on the original de Layens building. The construction site began in 1926 and the building was opened in 1930, but the work continued until 1937. In the niches there were sculptures by Ernest Wijnants of Mechelen representing important figures in the banking and financial sectors in the Gothic style. In the night between 10 and 11 May 1944, the Round Table was again heavily damaged by an air raid. The building burned completely and the façade was very damaged. The restoration work was completed in 1947 and in 1980 by the architect J.M. Fox still carried out renovations and extensions mainly along Tiensestraat and Eikstraat.

Attractions in Leuven