Things to Do in Heverlee
Category types
8 results sorted by traveller favourites
- Things to do ranked using Tripadvisor data including reviews, ratings, number of page views, and user location.
We perform checks on reviews.
Tripadvisor’s approach to reviews
Before posting, each Tripadvisor review goes through an automated tracking system, which collects information, answering the following questions: how, what, where and when. If the system detects something that potentially contradicts our community guidelines, the review is not published.
When the system detects a problem, a review may be automatically rejected, sent to the reviewer for validation, or manually reviewed by our team of content specialists, who work 24/7 to maintain the quality of the reviews on our site.
Our team checks each review posted on the site disputed by our community as not meeting our community guidelines.
Learn more about our review moderation.
Speciality Museums • Art Museums
Churches & Cathedrals
Points of Interest & Landmarks
Speciality & Gift Shops • Flea & Street Markets
What travellers are saying
- Ames SMedford, MA2 contributionsI came to have a quiet scenic day away from the bustle of Brussels. This was the highlight of the day trip. It is a beautiful castle, and the area around is pretty. If you’re a runner it’s a beautiful place to go for a jog.
Since classes were over for the day I went inside to have a look at the courtyard from up aboveWritten 22 March 2024This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews. - Jurgen BBrussels, Belgium2,904 contributionsWe have travelled all over the world but never saw ceilings anywhere like this, with full relief. The expo we saw was very good. The church not so much.Written 19 May 2021This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
- TrainbleuBrussels, Belgium39,495 contributionsThis small museum is part of a much larger site comprising Park abbey (‘Abdij van Park’ in Dutch) and all its outbuildings, Saint John the Evangelist’s Church and its churchyard, the restaurant De Abdijmolen in the former abbey water mill and a lovely, small park with several ponds. The Abdij van Park’ site (reviewed elsewhere) and the church (not listed on Tripadvisor) are accessible free of charge and are certainly worth seeing.
To visit the finally completely refurbished interior of the abbey with its impressive 17th century stucco ceilings and stained-glass windows a ticket and a reservation are needed. The ticket even gives access to temporary exhibitions in the Parcum Museum of religious art and culture. When we visited, there was an exhibition on catholic saints people turned to for assistance in case of illness. Not uninteresting but we were rather disappointed the long-winding audio guide explanation wasn’t concentrated on the exhibits.Written 11 December 2021This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews. - TrainbleuBrussels, Belgium39,495 contributionsDue to the present Covid-19 travel restrictions, the closure of restaurants and bars and the cancellation of most events we find ourselves visiting a large number of minor sites we never took the time to look at. Always nicer than wandering about aimlessly. So, on a grey Saturday afternoon we walked to the Church of Our Lady of Consolation in Heverlee (near Leuven), located at the top of the rather steep Pakenstraat. Both the red-brick church in Romanesque Revival style and the adjoining Augustinian abbey (St. Thomas of Villanova) were designed in the 1950s by architect Karel Van Cauwenbergh. The church, which was built as a parish church for the population of several post–World War II social housing projects, is surprisingly large and has an impressive square bell tower.
As evening mass was just about to finish, we had a peek inside. In this spacious church the Belgian Covid-19 rule capping the number of worshippers at fifteen people seemed incomprehensible but it was clearly respected. The interior is austere - simple wooden pews and just a few stylized statues - and sparsely-lit through small windows. But the white, barrel vaulted ceiling, decorated with paintings by Augustinian monk Leo Coppens, brightens things up. We liked the vibrant colours of the small stained-glass windows by Dutch artist Frans Cox (1917 – 1997).
Unfortunately restaurant Pakenhof next to the church was closed due to Covid-19 restrictions, so we couldn’t try it out.Written 2 February 2021This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews. - TrainbleuBrussels, Belgium39,495 contributionsThe large mural on the side wall of Number 82 Bierbeekstraat was inaugurated in October 2021. It shows a young woman holding a bouquet of red flowers while standing on a path of Leuven City Cemetery. A bicycle is parked a little further on. The mural by Gerolf Van de Perre pays tribute to local girl Hortense Daman, whose parents had a greengrocer’s shop in the nearby Pleinstraat. Born in 1926, she was only a teenager when WWII broke out. Still, she didn’t hesitate to assist her elder brother in his resistance work by smuggling documents, weapons, and explosives hidden under the deliveries in her bicycle basket. In 1944, the family was betrayed to the Gestapo. Hortense and her mother were deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp; her father was sent to Buchenwald. Despite the horrors they experienced, the whole family survived. Hortense married British staff sergeant Sydney Clews and moved to England, where she died in 2006, aged 80.
The mural is just one of several tributes to her heroism in Leuven. The street sign “Hortense Damanhof” in the mural points to a small street named after her.Written 25 November 2024This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews. - TrainbleuBrussels, Belgium39,495 contributionsWe stumbled upon this red brick church dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua while walking along Leuven’s ring road. It was erected in 1895 in Romanesque Revival style as parish church for a new quarter inhabited mainly by prison officers of the nearby prison and railwaymen. The church is unremarkable but its façade fits nicely into the surroundings. As expected, it wasn’t open on a Saturday afternoon but we managed to have a peek inside through a glass partition. A small chapel, containing two statues of Saint Anthony and a stained-glass window, was open. Nothing to go out of your way for.
While in the area we took the opportunity to examine the war memorial for Léon Schreurs (1888-1914), just a few steps away on the verge of Léon Schreursvest. A large bronze relief represents the young caporal who died defending, on his own, the Tiense gate of Leuven against the arriving Germans. War historians might disagree as to whether he acted out of courage or suicidal desperation but the memorial clearly presents him as a hero: a female figure behind the soldier holds a laurel twig and a flag.
The church of Saint Anthony of Padua is erroneously listed as ‘Kerkfabriek Sint-Antonius Van Paduwa’ (church administration Saint Anthony of Padua) but we didn’t even manage to have the spelling error ‘Paduwa’ corrected on Tripadvisor.Written 31 January 2021This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews. - TrainbleuBrussels, Belgium39,495 contributionsWe love thrift shops because you never know what treasures you might unearth while rummaging through their offer of second-hand goods. The ‘Kringwinkel’ (Dutch for Recycling Shop) in Heverlee has nothing of a smelly place full of old junk. It is airy and spacious, clean and well-organised. Pots, pans, china, vases, dishes, cutlery, glassware, books, records, CDs, DVDs, clothes, shoes, bags, etc. are all displaying on tables, racks or shelves. Apart from recycling the store offers job opportunities for disadvantaged jobseekers.
In these Covid-19 times we particularly like the fact that several Kringwinkel shops have a common web shop and are putting up their best items for online auction under uwkringding.be. As purchased items may be picked up at the store or delivered we couldn’t resist the temptation to give it a go, but we didn’t win the auction. It won't stop us trying again.Written 4 February 2021This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
