Klöster im Hochmittelalter

Medieval Monasteries in the Duchy of Brabant I 219

bey - except at the contemporaneous church of the Cistercian nunnery in Roer-
mond (Munsterkerk), the burial church of Gerard IV, Count of Guelre, and his
wife Margaret of Brabant, a sister of Henry II.4° Secondly, it referred to a Caro-
lingian and Ottonian imperial tradition, but adapted it to the modernity of
Gothic forms, especially the large central window, which is definitely different
from the Cistercian tradition of western rose windows. Thirdly, despite territo-
rial contestations, the Westbau asserted that the abbey was located in Brabant - as
expressed by the name Villarium-in-Brabantia - and could be interpreted as a
monumental boundary marker. Some other Westbauten were built in Brabant in
the thirteenth century, notably at the St Germain church in Tienen and the St
Leonard church in Zoutleeuw/Leau. Most unexpected is the huge late Gothic
Westbau of St Peter's church in Leuven from the early sixteenth century.41
A Sainte-Chapelle in Leuven: the Choir of the Dominican Church
Until the end of the thirteenth century, when Duke John I decided to move his
court to Brussels, Leuven was a crucial place for Mendicant friars who wanted to
develop their apostolate in the wealthy duchy. Both the Dominicans and the Fran-
ciscans arrived from Cologne in 1228 and the Augustinian friars around 1236. The
three competing communities succeeded in building their friaries within the first
town wall, on grounds along the river Dyle.42 Duke Henry I allowed the Domini-
cans to use the chapel of the old castrum of the counts of Leuven, which was lo-
cated on an island in the middle of the town. At the same time, the duke was build-
ing a new castle on a hill outside the town. The Dominicans developed an urban
friary with a stadium on the island site and started to build a Gothic church around

40 Thomas Coomans, Cistercian Nuns and Princely Memorials: Dynastic Burial Churches in
the Cistercian Abbeys of the Medieval Low Countries, in: Tod, Grabmal und Herrschafts-
repräsentation (as in note 38), pp. 683-734, pp. 776-798; Thomas Coomans, Moniales cister-
ciennes et memoire dynastique: eglises funeraires princieres et abbayes cisterciennes dans les
anciens Pays-Bas medievaux, in: Sepulturae Cistercienses. Burial, Memorial and Patronage in
Medieval Cistercian Abbeys/Grablegen, Memoria und Patronatswesen in mittelalterlichen
Zisterzienserklöstern, ed. by Christine KRATZKE/Jackie Hall (Citeaux, commentarii cis-
tercienses 56), Forges-Chimay 2005, pp. 87-146.

41 Aart J. J. Mekking, Vorraum göttlichen Wissens. Der Westbau der Löwener Peterskirche als
Repräsentation allgemeiner und kontextbedingter Wirklichkeiten, in: Kunst & Region (as in
note 13), pp. 130-143.

42 Thomas Coomans, Architectural Competition in a University Town: The Mendicant Friar-
ies in Late Medieval Louvain, in: Architecture, Liturgy and Identity. Liber Amicorum Paul
Crossley, ed. by Zoe OPACIC/Achim Timmermann (Studies in Gothic Art 1), Turnhout
2011, pp. 207-220.