Klöster im Hochmittelalter

220 I Thomas Coomans

1250. As the first Gothic building in Leuven, this church introduced new con-
struction techniques and forms in the town. As burial church of Duke Henry III
and his wife Adelaide (Aleydis, Alix or Alice) of Burgundy, the Dominican foun-
dation on the island became a place of memory of the ducal dynasty.43 The shape of
the choir and its 7/12 polygonal apse are the bearers of a particular meaning that
contributed to a new monastic architectural visual culture in Brabant.
The Dominican church belongs to the type of thirteenth-century Gothic
Mendicant churches of Northern Europe.44 Its plan shows an aisled nave of eight
bays ending with a polygonal apse; there is no transept, no tower, and no ambu-
latory. One of the visual characteristics of the church is the contrast between the
high eastern part with its oriented 7/12 apse and stone vaults stressed by but-
tresses and flying buttresses, and the modest western part covered with a wooden
vault and lightened by smaller windows (Figs. 7 und 8). For long, it was thought
that the western part was older than the eastern part. A study and tree-ring dat-
ing of the roof structures helped to understand the difference in scale and style.45
The eastern part is composed by the apse and the four eastern bays of the aisled
church, where the friars' choir was originally located. According to the assem-
bly marks, the roof structure of this part was erected in two phases, tree-ring
dated from 1260-1265d (east) and 1251—1261d (west).46 The four western bays of
the nave are more recent and were originally covered with a wooden barrel-
vaulted ceiling. They have a short and narrow clerestory, no flying buttresses,
and a large western window with Rayonnant Gothic tracery. Because of the

43 Thomas CooMANs/Anna Bergmans, L'eglise Notre-Dame des Dominicains a Louvain
(1251-1276). Le memorial d'Henri III, due de Brabant, et d'Alix de Bourgogne, in: Bulletin
monumental 167 (2009), pp. 99-125; Thomas CooMANs/Anna Bergmans, Van hertogelijke
grafkerk tot Studium generale: de Onze-Lieve-Vrouw-ter-predikherenkerk in Leuven, in:
M & L. Monumenten, Landschappen en Archeologie 24/5 (2005), pp. 6-34.

44 Wolfgang Schenkluhn, Architektur der Bettelorden. Die Baukunst der Dominikaner und
Franziskaner in Europa, Darmstadt 2000, pp. 103-137; Matthias Untermann, Zwischen
Ästhetik des Verzichts und monastischen Idealen: die Baukunst der Bettelorden, in: Innova-
tionen durch Deuten und Gestalten: Klöster im Mittelalter zwischen Jenseits und Weld, ed.
by Gert MELVILLE/Bernd SCHNEIDMÜLLER/Stefan Weinfurter (Klöster als Innovations-
labore: Studien und Texte 1), Regensburg 2014, pp. 275-290. Available online at: file:///C:/
Users/u0016480/Downloads/kail_p0276-0291.pdf (last accessed on 14.07.2019).

45 Thomas Coomans, De oudste dakconstructie in de Leuvense binnenstad: bouwhistorisch
onderzoek in de predikherenkerk, in: Relicta: Archeologie, Monumenten- en Landschapson-
derzoek in Vlaanderen/Relicta: Heritage Research in Flanders 1 (2006), p. 183-212. Available
online at: https://oar.onroerenderfgoed.be/publicaties/RELTZl/RELT001-008.pdf (last ac-
c essed on 11.07.2019).

46 David HouBRECHTs/Jeröme Eeckhout, Analyse dendrochronologique de l'eglise des
Dominicains a Leuven. Universite de Liege, Laboratoire de dendrochronologie 2000 (unpub-
lished report).