St-Pieterskerk Leuven

At Leuven's heart is this soaring Brabantine-Gothic church (1425) whose remarkable wooden pulpit is fashioned like twin palm trees that drip with cherubs. The elaborately carved stone rood screen is magnificent too. Tickets are required to go beyond here into the apse, whose schatkamer (treasury) most notably includes two priceless triptychs by Leuven-based Flemish Primitive artist Dirk Bouts. The 1464–67 masterpiece Het Laatste Avondmaal is remarkable for placing Jesus’ Last Supper in a typical Flemish Gothic dining hall. Its panels have been ‘lost’ several times, including during WWII, when Nazis carted them off and hid them in a salt mine.Outside, if the church's northwest facade looks distinctly unfinished, that's because unstable subsoil forced builders to abandon a 170m-high tower that was originally planned here.