Hotmail
Belgian 'beguinages' are UNESCO site
World Heritage sites, were once refuges for women
 Yves Logghe / AP A bike is parked inside the inner court of a house at the beguinage in Leuven, Belgium. |
LEUVEN, Belgium - The cobblestone path dips below street level to a small haven of mottled red brick buildings and arched doorways. The occasional bicycle is propped up against a wall. A trilingual sign forbids sunbathing, picking fruit or loud talking.
This place, these buildings, are different from the clapboard student houses of most American university towns. It looks like a place where people live a peaceful, simple life.
Once upon a time, it was.
It now houses students and professors. But centuries ago, this hamlet in Leuven — a university town, 20 miles east of Brussels — was a beguinage, a sort of commune for unmarried, religiously-inclined women known as beguines (pronounced Bay-Gueens).
Beguines — most likely derived from the Flemish word beghen, which means to pray — were women in the Low Countries who, beginning in the 12th century, chose to live neither under the care of a man nor the vows of the church.
Theirs was, in essence, a feminist movement and its remarkable architectural legacy is still evident in cities across the Netherlands and Belgium. But nowhere in greater splendor than in this old university town.
The Leuven beguinage (called a begijnhof in Dutch) was founded in 1230. Exquisitely restored in the 1960s, it is today a quaint little town of tiny gabled homes and gardens that spreads across 17 acres.
UNESCO has declared the a World Heritage site, a place of outstanding cultural importance. There are neither cars nor shops in this spectacular urban oasis that delights visitors year-round.
If you stroll down the quiet, centuries-old cobblestone streets and peek into the gated garden areas, you can almost see the beguines growing vegetables.
A canal runs between the buildings. There is no tour boat, just greenish water flowing between red brick buildings. Ivy, growing thickly, dives into the water. The cobblestone street becomes a bridge, just for five yards or so.
|
What is so unusual about the beguinages here and in the Netherlands — there is still a beguinage in Amsterdam — is that they survived revolutions, social strife and terrible wars across six, seven centuries.
The history of beguines is somewhat muddled.
Beguinages were home to generations of religious women who sought to live a more independent life than that of women who married against their will. They made their homes, catered to the sick and poor, and sought to serve God without separating from the rest of the world.
As Catholic women devoted to prayer and good work, beguines lived simply, wore loose robes and headwear similar to nuns' habits.
|
Beguines took no religious vows. They could leave and marry, if they chose. They could own property and took no alms. Women of all classes were welcomed. They carried on professions, often in the textile industry. They elected women to be leaders — Grand Dames -and each Grand Dame was often assisted by an elected council. Each beguine was expected to support herself and make a tangible contribution to the beguinage, either through labor or rent income.
Belgium's beguinages are intact, but the beguines are long gone. In 2000, there only five of them left in Belgium.
- Discuss Story On Newsvine
-
Rate Story:
View popularLowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM EUROPE TRAVEL |
 Europe Travel Section Front |
| Add Europe Travel headlines to your news reader: |
Resource guide