Leuven Street Art Walk

A walk around Leuven that takes in 11 exceptional murals.

Leuven is a beautiful city to walk around and view its many old buildings and heritage sites. But this walk introduces you to another aspect of the city: some of its amazing pieces of street art. The walk is quite lengthy as it goes from one side to the other, coming in at a healthy 10 km. However, I’ve designed it so you can do it two halves. So you could do one half in the morning, enjoy a lunch in the city center, and then – re-energized – do the second half. Or you could simply divide the walk over two visits. The map of the route is below, which you can download as a PDF. You can also get the GPX route for your smartphone or GPS device from my RouteYou page. It starts and ends at the Grote Markt in Leuven.

For each artwork, I give the location and the name of the artist. The artist’s name is clickable and goes to their Instagram site (or website in one case) so you can check out other work by them. All the photos are by Kristel Van Loock, who lives and works in Leuven and whose Instagram site has literally thousands of beautiful photos of Leuven and elsewhere. Thanks Kristel for permission to print your photos here.

1: “The Red Line”

2: “Blue Dragon”

3: “The Meadow”

4:  “100 Years Wijnpers”

This mural was created in 2012 by students of the Wijnpers School to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of their school. A small but important detail: 28 stars were drawn for the 28 victims of the bus crash in Switzerland that year which involved Belgian schoolchildren and teachers.

5: “Searching for nectar”

6: “The Witch”

7: “Flower Carpet”

8: “Ode to Magritte”

9: “The Beach”

10: “Tivoli Bridge”

11: “Hortense Daman”

This mural is based on the book “A child at war” by Mark Bles. It’s the true story of the young Belgian resistance fighter Hortense Daman who died in 2006.

Other artwork

There are many more murals and pieces of street art in Leuven. If you are interested in seeing some more, and maybe adding some more locations to your Leuven street art walk, a good source is the Street Art Cities website. If you’re looking for a piece of original Belgian modern art for your living room or office, check out the work of Olivier Van Dam. And if you have a collection of photos of street art from your own city, contact me. I would be delighted to feature street art from other towns and cities across Belgium. Don’t forget to check out Kristel’s Instagram page too for some ideas of what to see in Leuven. While you’re there, why not check out the Discovering Belgium Instagram page? And if you are not yet following this blog, now’s your chance – just add your email below: