St John Berchmans University College, locally known as Jezuietenhuis or Lerkeveld, is an educational institution run by the European Low Countries Province of the

Society of Jesus , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

Heverlee Heverlee () is a town in Belgium. It is a borough of the city of Leuven. Heverlee is bordered by Herent, Bertem, Oud Heverlee and several other municipalities that are part of Leuven (including Leuven proper and Kessel-Lo). The town is the loca ...

, outside

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic ...

. It was built in 1958 by Jos Ritzen, who worked with

Alphons Boosten Alphons Boosten (20 January 1893, Maastricht – 2 January 1951) was a Dutch architect, who mostly practiced in the province of Limburg. His works include several large housing complexes and more than twenty churches. Early in his career Booste ...

. It began as a philosophy and theology college for the Jesuits and housed their archives.Slechten, Bert, ''Kloosterbouw in de Gemeenten Heverlee Tijdens de 19e en de 20e eeuw'' (Leuven, 2012) pp. 104-123

History

Foundation

In the 19th century, the Jesuits had a building in Egenhoven outside Heverlee. It was a country estate and served as a training college for the Jesuits. The Jesuits also had premises which are now the Evangelical Theological Faculty in Heverlee. These two sites originally served as the philosophy and theological college for all the Jesuits in Belgium. Plans were made in 1931 to have one college for the French-speaking Jesuits and another separate one for the Flemish-speaking Jesuits. In 1935, these plans had not materialised and when the Jesuits created separate administrative units (or provinces) for the Flemish-speaking Jesuits and the French-speaking Jesuits, they both still shared the building.

Construction

In 1953, a site was found for the construction of the college and the architect Jos Ritzen was contracted to design it. He had previously worked with

. Together they built churches in

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; li, Mestreech ; french: Maestricht ; es, Mastrique ) is a city and a municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital and largest city of the province of Limburg. Maastricht is located on both sides of the ...

and

Eygelshoven Eygelshoven (, li, Egelze , Ripuarian: ) is a village, since 1982 part of the town of Kerkrade, in the southeast of the Netherlands, close to the German and Belgian borders. It has two former coal mines, ''Laura'' and ''Julia'', which were nam ...

in the early 1920s. Building work stated on 31 July 1956 and it was completed in June 1958. The cost escalated during construction and on completion it was BEF72 million, which in 2010 would be €11 million. As the French-speaking Jesuits had one tall building on one side of the

River Dijle The Dyle (french: Dyle ; nl, Dijle ) is a river in central Belgium, left tributary of the Rupel. It is long. It flows through the Belgian provinces of Walloon Brabant, Flemish Brabant and Antwerp. Its source is in Houtain-le-Val, near Nivelles ...

and the Flemish-speaking Jesuits had another on the other side of the river, students there would refer to the two buildings as the 'Two Towers'.

Expansion

In the 1960s vocations to religious life fell dramatically in the Catholic church and they had to expand the building's usage. The building still contained the Jesuit archives, but it was adapted to contain a conference centre, a Jesuit retirement home and a student hostel. The Lerkeveld Student Hostel provides accommodation and study space for students of the

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven KU Leuven (or Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. It conducts teaching, research, and services in computer science, engineering, natural sciences, theology, humanities, medicine, l ...

. The archive contains documents such as ones about education in the schools run by the Jesuits in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. In 2004, the Flemish Jesuits moved 15,000 books of a collection called 'Jesuitica and Ignatiana' to the Maurits Sabbe Library of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of the

Parish

The Jesuit community there also serve the local Catholic population by regularly celebrating

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

. The nearby St Lambert Church in

closed from 2013 to 2014, so the only Mass being celebrated was at the Jezuitenhuis. There, Mass is at 6:30pm from Monday to Friday and at 9:00am on Sunday.Kerkleuven
retrieved 28 October 2013

References

External links

*
Jezuietenhuis site

Lerkeveld Student Hostel site

Maurits Sabbe Library site

St Lambert Parish site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint John Berchmans University College Heverlee KU Leuven Jesuit universities and colleges Educational institutions established in 1958 Catholic universities and colleges in Belgium 1958 establishments in Belgium Buildings and structures in Leuven