Discover 8 hidden attractions, cool sights, and unusual things to do in Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium). Don't miss out on these must-see attractions: Musée L, Ferme du Biéreau, and Aula Magna. Also, be sure to include Louvain-la-Neuve Cyclotron in your itinerary.
Below, you can find the list of the most amazing places you should visit in Louvain-la-Neuve (Wallonie).
Table of Contents
Musée L
The Musée L or Musée universitaire de Louvain, French for: Louvain University Museum, is a Belgian university museum of the University of Louvain located in Louvain-la-Neuve, Walloon Brabant, Belgium.
It is the first large museum that brings together the heritage of a Belgian university and presents it to the general public.,[1]
Address: Place des Sciences 3, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Ferme du Biéreau
Biéreau Farm is an old Brabantine farm now turned into a cultural and musical centre. It is located in Louvain-la-Neuve, part of the municipality Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, in the province Walloon Brabant in Belgium.
Like Lauzelle Farm (French: Ferme de Lauzelle), it gave its name to one of the four subdivisions of Louvain-la-Neuve.[2]
Aula Magna
The Aula Magna is a postmodern building of the University of Louvain located in Louvain-la-Neuve, a section of the Belgian city of Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, in Walloon Brabant. It holds one of the country's largest auditoria, with a maximum capacity of 1050 seats, and Wallonia's largest stage. Inaugurated in 2001, the complex was designed by Philippe Samyn.[3]
Address: Place Raymond Lemaire, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Louvain-la-Neuve Cyclotron
Building complex. The Louvain-la-Neuve Cyclotron is a brutalist architectural complex of the University of Louvain built from 1970 to 1972 in Louvain-la-Neuve, Walloon Brabant, Belgium, notably holding UCLouvain's CYCLONE particle accelerators. It is the first building completed by the university when it moved following the Leuven crisis and was the largest cyclotron in Europe at the time of its construction. The Louvain Cyclotron can also refer to Belgium's first cyclotron built in Louvain in 1947, which was replaced by the Louvain-la-Neuve center.
In addition to two particle accelerators of the Cyclotron Research Center, the complex holds the UCLouvain Schools of Mathematics and Physics and corresponding research institutes, the Centre for Applied Molecular Technologies, the UCLouvain radiation protection service, a business incubator and a shared workspace.[4]
Musée Hergé
Sleek showcase of a cartoonist's life. The Musée Hergé, or Hergé Museum, is a museum in Belgium dedicated to the life and work of the Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé, creator of the series of comic albums, The Adventures of Tintin.
The museum is located in the town of Louvain-la-Neuve in Wallonia to the south of Brussels at the address, "Rue Labrador 26", Tintin's first home in the books. It was designed by the French architect Christian de Portzamparc, with interiors designed by cartoonist Joost Swarte. The first stone was laid May 2007 during the centenary of Hergé's birth and it opened in June 2009. It consists of three floors with a total of nine exhibition rooms, and a café, museum shop and mini cinema.[5]
Bois de Lauzelle
Lauzelle Wood is a private forest belonging to the Catholic University of Louvain and located in the municipality of Ottignies, in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant.
It is located north of the city of Louvain-la-Neuve and east of the section of Limelette. It covers nearly 200 ha, bordered by the hamlets of La Croix, Blocry, Hocaille and Lauzelle. The golf course of Louvain-la-Neuve is next to it as well as the woods of Quéwées and Stoquoi.
Maison des jeunes "Chez Zelle"
Address: Voie des Hennuyers, 3, Louvain-la-Neuve
Université catholique de Louvain
University in Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. The Université catholique de Louvain is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It is located in Louvain-la-Neuve, which was expressly built to house the university, and Brussels, Charleroi, Mons, Tournai and Namur. Since September 2018, the university has used the branding UCLouvain, replacing the acronym UCL, following a merger with Saint-Louis University, Brussels.
The original University of Louvain was founded at the centre of the historic town of Leuven in 1425, and abolished by the law in 1797 making it the first university in Belgium and the Low Countries. This University was the centre of Baianism, Jansenism and Febronianism in Europe. A new university, the State University of Louvain, was founded in 1817 and abolished by the law in 1835. A new catholic university was founded in Mechlin in 1834, the Catholic University of Mechlin and moved in Leuven in 1835 that is frequently, but controversially, identified as a continuation of the older institution. In 1968 the Catholic University of Leuven split into the Dutch-language Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, which stayed in Leuven, and the French-language Université catholique de Louvain, which moved to Louvain-la-Neuve in Wallonia, 30 km southeast of Brussels. Since the 15th century, Leuven/Louvain, as it is still often called, has been a major contributor to the development of Catholic theology. The UCLouvain is often ranked among the world's top 50 institutions for the study of philosophy and top 20 institutions for theology and religious studies.[6]