Saint Peter's church, Leuven (Louvain), Belgium - what it should look like (POVRay animation)

Sint Pieterskerk, gotiek, Leuven, België
Eglise St-Pierre, gothique, Louvain, Belgique
Sankt Peterskirche, Gotik, Löwen, Belgien
Saint Peter's church, gothic, Louvain, Belgium

Raytracing experiment - Preliminary test version (that means: working on a better one) - animation created in Persistence of Vision Raytracer (POV-Ray)

The towers of this Brabantine gothic church (Brabantse gotiek) were designed around 1505 (on parchment, 4 metres high, on display in the municipal museum), by Joost Matsys, brother of the famous painter Quentin Matsys (Dutch: Quinten or Kwinten, Massijs or Metsijs or Massys or Metsys). between 1524 and 1530 he made a detailed stone model (8 metres high - on display in the church itself), which was the main input for the development of this computer model.

The towers were never fully executed, even though they were higher in the past. Construction stopped mid-16th century. Between 1570 and 1604, the southern tower collapsed gradually. After several restoration campaigns throughout the 17th, 19th and 20th century, the tower obtained its current form (as it can be seen at the beginning of the video).

Music: 'kyrie' by Andrea Gabrieli, on the magnificent recording 'A Venetian Coronation 1595', performed by the Gabrieli Consort and Players, under the direction of Paul McCreesh. A must-buy!

(ok, that's not 16th century Flemish music, but this piece matched excellently with the animation :o))

© Yves Vanhellemont