Belgium's beer capital and student city — the world's largest brewery and the finest Gothic town hall
Leuven is Belgium's most underrated city: a university town of 100,000 students (KU Leuven is one of Europe's oldest and highest-ranked universities), home to the Anheuser-Busch InBev global headquarters and the world's largest brewery, and the possessor of what Victor Hugo called 'the most beautiful Gothic town hall in the world.' The Oude Markt, ringed by bar terraces and known locally as 'the longest bar in the world,' comes alive every evening when the students emerge. Stella Artois was born here in 1926.
Leuven was the medieval capital of the Duchy of Brabant and one of the most important trading cities of 15th-century Europe. The university was founded in 1425, making it one of the world's oldest Catholic universities. The city was devastated in both World Wars: German forces burned the university library in 1914 (destroying 300,000 volumes) and again in 1940. Both times it was rebuilt — the second library, funded by American donations after WWI, has a carillon tower that plays daily. The brewery Den Hoorn, founded in 1366, would eventually become InBev, the world's largest brewing company.