LOUVAIN. 23. Route. 145
brated Justus Lipsius (d. 1606) taught here. Under Joseph II. its
reputation somewhat declined, but it continued to exist until the
close of last century. So extensive were its privileges, that no
one could formerly hold a public appointment in the Austrian
Netherlands, without having taken a degree at Louvain. After
having been closed by the French republicans, the university was
revived by the Dutch government in 1817. A philosophical faculty
was afterwards instituted, notwithstanding the determined op¬
position of the clergy, and complaints to which the innovation gave
rise are said to have contributed in some degree to the Revolution
of 1830. Since 1838 the university has been re-organised, and has
assumed an exclusively ecclesiastical character. It now possesses
five faculties and is attended by 1000 students, many of whom live
in three large colleges (Pedagogies du St. Esprit, Marie-Therese, and
Adrien VI). — The technical academy connected with the university
(Ecole du Genie Civil, des Arts et Manufactures et des Mines) is
rapidly increasing.
The new Prison for solitary confinement between the Porte de
Tirlemont and Porte de Pare can accommodate 600 convicts.
Louvain possesses important establishments for the manufacture
of carved church furniture, one of the largest of which is that of
Goyers Freres, Rempart de Tirlemont.
'Caesar's Castle\ as the ancient stronghold of the counts and dukes,
situated on an eminence near the Porte de Malines, was called, has al¬
most entirely disappeared. It derives its name from an unfounded tra¬
dition that it was originally erected by the great Roman general. The
Emp. Charles V. and his sisters were educated in this castle by the
learned Adrian Dedel, who was afterwards elevated to the papal throne
as Adrian VI.
23. From Louvain to Charleroi.
40 M. Railway in 2i|4—3 hrs.; fares 5 fr. 20, 3 fr. 90, 2 fr. 60 c.
The line passes several places memorable in the campaign of
1815. The country traversel! is at first flat. Stations Heverle, with
a chateau and park of the Due d'Arenberg; Weert St. Georges,
Gastuche; (14^2 M.) Wavre, to which the Prussians retreated
after the battle of Ligny, with a handsome monument by Van
Oemberg, 1859; Limal; (18 M.) Ottignies, where the Brussels and
Namur line is crossed (p. 135); Court St. Etienne, La Roche.
The train now passes close to the imposing ruins of the Cister¬
cian abbey of * Villers, founded in 1147 and destroyed in 1796, and
stops at (25 M.) stat. Villers-la- Ville. The ruins lie about '/4 M.
to theN. of the station. The road to them passes under the railway
and skirts the Thyle. At the entrance to the abbey is *Dumont's
Inn, where each visitor pays 1/2 fr. Beyond the court is the rectan¬
gular Refectory, a tasteful structure in the transition style, with
two rows of windows. The Cloisters, chiefly Gothic, date from the
14th—16th cent., and are adjoined by the Gothic Church, erected in
Baedeker's Belgium and Holland. 4th Edit. jQ
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