Dominating Monseigneur Ladeuzeplein, this imposingly grand Flemish Renaissance–style palace features a soaring Scandinavian-style brick tower topped with a three-storey octagonal stone cupola. The library was convincingly rebuilt after WWI with the financial aid of 400 American universities, having been infamously put to the torch in August 1914 during the schrecklichkeit (terror or 'hard measures') of the German occupation. It was then rebuilt a second time after WWII.
The public can visit at certain times during term, there's a summer program of exhibitions and the 300 steps of the the tower can be climbed year round.
