Université catholique de Louvain

UCLouvain or Université catholique de Louvain (also known as the Catholic University of Louvain, the English translation of its French name, and the University of Louvain, its official English name)[3] is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It is located in Louvain-la-Neuve, which was expressly built to house the university, and Brussels, Charleroi, Mons, Tournai and Namur. Since September 2018, the university has used the branding UCLouvain, replacing the acronym UCL, following a merger with Saint-Louis University, Brussels. The original University of Louvain (Universitas Lovaniensis) was founded at the centre of the historic town of Leuven (or Louvain) in 1425, and abolished by the law in 1797 making it the first university in Belgium and the Low Countries. This university was the centre of Baianism, Jansenism[4] and Febronianism in Europe. A new university, the State University of Louvain, was founded in 1817 and abolished by the law in 1835. A new catholic university was founded in Mechlin in 1834, the Catholic University of Mechlin and moved in Leuven in 1835 that is frequently, but controversially, identified as a continuation of the older institution.AB In 1968 the Catholic University of Leuven split into the Dutch-language Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, which stayed in Leuven, and the French-language Université catholique de Louvain, which moved to Louvain-la-Neuve in Wallonia, 30 km southeast of Brussels. Since the 15th century, Leuven/Louvain, as it is still often called, has been a major contributor to the development of Catholic theology.