Fodor's Expert Review Universiteitsbibliotheek

The original Flemish-Renaissance library was set up in the old Cloth Hall on Naamsestraat in 1636. But after the university was disbanded during the French Revolutionary Wars, its collection was ushered away to Paris. Though destroyed in 1940 by British-German artillery fire, postwar it was rebuilt to the same design and today, visitors can climb the 300 steps to the top of the tower where a carillon of 63 bells, weighing 35 tons, rings out across the square.