Arenberg Castle
Kasteel van Arenberg

Snap a pic of this majestic 15th-century castle, then head to its lawns to unwind or hike your way back to the city center.

Bad news first? You can’t really visit the inside of this beautiful Medieval castle. If you’re thinking that’s because some fancy royals live here, think again: believe it or not, Arenberg Castle today is a university campus! The castle is a historic sight to see in the university town of Leuven.

• Arenberg Castle today: the former Celestine monastery on the château grounds is now home to the campus library. With its traditionally Flemish façades and a park nearby, the students here love their castle-campus. If you’re not a student, you can come here to enjoy the architecture (albeit from the outside) or just relax in the park, divided by the river Dyle.
• Once upon a time: the lords of Heverlee (the name of the neighborhood next to Leuven where the castle lies) started living in this area in the 12th century. They later sold the site to the Croÿ family from Picardy. In 1455, then, Antoine I de Croÿ demolished the old building and began to work on a new castle - the current Arenberg Castle.
• Here come the Arenberg: when the last Croy died in 1612, the castle passed in the hands of the Arenbergs, a family into which Anna van Croÿ had married. It became their home for many centuries, until it was occupied by the Germans and the Austrians during WWI. The Belgian government later seized the chateau and the adjacent park, until Leuven university finally got it in 1921.