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June 9, 2008
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The city hall of the Belgian town of Zoutleeuw.

At the end of the middle ages the town grew large as a result of cloth trade. Unfortunately competition on the cloth market from England as well as the nearby town of Tienen and destructions during the tumultuous post-medieval centuries ended the prosperity of this once mighty city. What is now left is a picturesque country village that sports a huge romano-gothic church and this richly decorated city hall.

The hall was built between 1530 and 1538 CE in a style that is equal parts late gothic and early renaissance. The building to the right of the hall is the old meat hall (usually mistakinly called the cloth hall), basically the place where meat was traded in the city. There was a meat hall here since the 13th century, but the current building is assumed to have been built at the same time as the city hall. The hall used to have a belfry, but this was demolished in 1796. The current tower was built in the 19th century to house a staircase that was originally part of a demolished house that stood next to the hall. The lowest (natural stone) parts of the tower is a remnant of the first 12th century city wall. (The second city wall enclosed a much larger area and the remnants [link] now lay far outside the current village).

Incidentally the name of the city was originally just Leeuw. This translated into english as Lion, but in reality the name comes from hlaiwa (meaning "near the grave mounds". Nobody knows why "zout" (salt) was added, only that it happened sometime around 1533 CE.
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:iconstoryranger:
~storyranger Jul 10, 2008  Hobbyist Photographer
Ooooooo, cool building! Lots of interesting angles.
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:iconquiroga:
~Quiroga Jun 25, 2008
looks a very nice example of the architecture, i like much the fachade!
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:iconb-f-g:
~B-F-G Jun 25, 2008
it's nice and light and gracefull for sure :) it looks very rich but also tiny and cute ^^
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:iconto-dream-of-wolves:
Mood: Joy ~To-Dream-of-Wolves Jun 9, 2008
Interesting, and beautiful. :rose:
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:iconb1ue-wolf:
~B1ue-Wolf Jun 9, 2008
so it was most like a trade center? Oo

nice building ^^
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:iconb-f-g:
~B-F-G Jun 10, 2008
kind of like a trade centre. In the middle ages the production and sale of a lot of products was regulated by guilds. These guilds would educate young men, ensure quality control, take care of the sick and elderly among their members. Quite often they would only allow their wares to be displayed and sold in their own building or hall. In belgium there is still a sizable amount of these halls to be found. in Ypres for instance [link] or the general purpouse halls under the belfry of Bruges [link]
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:iconb1ue-wolf:
~B1ue-Wolf Jun 17, 2008
wow thx ^^
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:iconcrazeejax:
~crazeejax Jun 9, 2008
niceeee :D
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