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Zoutleeuw City Hall
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
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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- marjan
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1175 W: 75 N: 899]](http://i1.trekearth.com/misc/g-g-g.gif)
(5625) - [2008-06-11 3:16]
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hi Johan, very nice building and good shot with fine useful informations.
Marjan
Johan,
Nice shot of this interesting architecture. The lighting and colors are great with nice sharpness and detail. Your composition is fine with the inclusion of the old fountain in the foreground.
TFS,
Asa
![Silver Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 28 W: 4 N: 148]](http://i1.trekearth.com/misc/s-n-g.gif){kind=small}