Discusses the reconstruction of the city center of Louvain following World War I, showing how such projects often reflect a popular desire to return to a glorified past, in this case an idealized concept of Old Flanders. Explains the case of Louvain's Grand Place to show how different components of the reconstruction interfered with one another and how the restoration of public buildings aimed at an idealized historical form. Such natural assimilation of history in town planning, and the ambition to project a collectively shared image of the place in the spatial organization it proposes, remain valid objectives today, although one must accept history as it is.