Capital of the province of Liège
Population: 195,000. 700,000 in the conurbation.
Specialities: Liège coffee and chocolate, Herve cheese, white pudding, Liège syrup, Jupiler beer, cider. Liège waffles, Liège-style meatballs, Liège salad, Liège-style rabbit, cûtès peûres (cooked pears), lacquemant (syrup cake), Liège violet.
Personalities: Georges Simenon (writer), Saint Hubert of Liège (saint), Jean Curtius (industrialist and financier), César Franck (musician), Jean-Michel Charlier (comic strip artist), Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (film directors), Marie Gillain (actress), Justine Hénin, David Goffin (tennis), Axel Witsel (football).
Culture: Les Ardentes (July), les Transardentes (music), Liège Festival (January), Saint Torè (student festival), International Crime Film Festival (April), Jazz in Liège (May), City Parade (June), Walloon Region Festival (September), Côteaux de la Citadelle (October), October Fair, Students Saint-Nicolas.
Sport: Standard de Liège (football), RFC Liège (football and rugby), Liège Basket. Events: Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Economy: Liège is a major economic centre, with the second largest inland port in Western Europe and an airport specialising in freight. A former stronghold of the steel industry, now in decline, it remains the economic capital of Wallonia. The town and its suburbs are home to companies active in the aerospace industry (Safran Aero Boosters, which manufactures parts for Airbus and the Ariane rocket; Amos, which manufactures optical components), the arms industry (Cockerill Maintenance & Engineering, Herstal), electronics (EVS, world leader in slow-motion television, BEA, Euresys, Gillam, IP Trade, X-RIS for portable X-ray systems, Lasea, Inductotherm, Physiol, etc.), biotech and electronics (Herstal, Herstal).), companies active in the biopharmaceutical (Eurogentec, etc.) and in the agri-food sector (Jupiler for beer, Spa and Chaudfontaine for water and lemonades, Galler for chocolate, etc.). Liège has developed multimedia with Médiacité and the Pôle Image de Liège.
Nickname: The Fervent City.
Websites and social networks: www.liege.be, www.visitezliege.be
SIMENON, A LIEGE WRITER?
The most famous Liège celebrity was born in 1903 but left his native city at the age of 19 to conquer Paris, the setting for the adventures of his most famous hero, Inspector Maigret. Nevertheless, the city of his childhood deeply influenced his work, and would not fail to honour him in the measure of his genius. A humourist columnist for the Gazette de Liège under the pseudonym Georges Sim, Simenon published his first novel in 1920, Au pont des Arches, and its subtitle (Humorous novel of Liège customs) sums up his influences quite well. After he left for France in 1922, Liège would inspire other works by the man with the pipe, including Pedigree, a kind of autobiography considered to be the greatest novel ever written about Liège. Three other novels, The Crime of Inspector Maigret, The Dancer at the Gai-Moulin and Three Crimes are set in the Fervent City, and experts claim that the writer often used the geography of French towns he had never set foot in to describe the setting of his own city. In 1977, the novelist donated his literary archives to the University of Liège, where Professor Maurice Piron, with his assistants Jacques Dubois and Jean-Marie Klinkenberg, set up a Georges Simenon Study Fund and Centre. In 2005 he was one of the personalities nominated for the title of Belg der Belgen (the greatest Belgian). In the French-language poll, he came 10th. He was only 77th in the Flemish version.
LIÈGE AND CYCLING
Since 2017, Liège has been the start and finish of the women's Liège-Bastogne-Liège, which has confirmed Dutch domination of the women's World Tour. Dutch riders have won six of the eight editions of the event, split equally between Anna van der Breggen, Annemiek van Vleuten and Demi Vollering, each of whom has won the event twice. The Province of Liège has more international experience on its CV than any other place in the world: it is the only local authority to have hosted all three of the men's Grand Tours. A frequent visitor to the Tour de France since 1948, with a stage victory that year for future Tour winner Gino Bartali, it also hosted the Grand Depart of the Giro d'Italia in Seraing in 2006 and a stage of the Tour of Spain in Liège in 2009. Liège shares the lead with Brussels in the ranking of foreign towns that have hosted the most stage finishes (10) in the men's Tour de France. Of the first eight winners in Liège, seven wore the Yellow Jersey in their career: Gino Bartali, Fritz Schaer, André Darrigade, Rik Van Looy, Henk Lubberding, Johann Bruyneel and Fabian Cancellara. It was here, moreover, that the promising Swiss champion, who had already shone in time trials in the youth categories, revealed himself to the general public by beating Lance Armstrong in the prologue in 2004. This was Cancellara's first day on the Tour de France. The town is also, of course, the start and finish of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, created in 1892. Its first organisers, members of the famous Pesant Club, had the idea of later launching a Liège-Paris-Liège race. In Belgium where the bicycle rules, the province of Liège has produced many talented riders, from Émile Masson to Philippe Gilbert.
SIGHTS
- Palace of the Prince-Bishops
Construction: 10th, 16th, 18th, and 19th centuries.
Style: Gothic and neo-Gothic.
History and characteristics: the first bishop's palace was built by Notger (972-1008) at the same time as the cathedral opposite. The half-timbered building was destroyed by fire in 1185 and rebuilt three years later. The complex is organised around three courtyards, with a Romanesque south-east façade, four towers surrounding the first courtyard, and two keeps protecting the whole. In 1449, a large Gothic staircase was added to the Romanesque façade. The palace then fell victim to the vagaries of Liège's history. It was sacked in 1465 and again in 1488. Another fire destroyed it in 1505. It was rebuilt by Cardinal Erard de la Marck, a close friend of Louis XII, between 1526 and 1536, inspired by the Château de Romorantin designed by Leonardo da Vinci for Francis I. The building is organised around three courtyards, the first of which is lined with galleries that form an uninterrupted peristyle. Erard de la Marck's work was continued by his successors, especially Gerard van Groesbeek and Ernest of Bavaria. A fire destroyed the south wing in 1734. The exterior façade was rebuilt in the classical style, and the pediment of the portal was decorated with the coat of arms of the prince of the time. Much of the interior decoration dates from this period. During the Liège revolution (1793), the cathedral was destroyed and the palace looted and abandoned. A major restoration campaign was launched in 1849. The Gothic character was favoured and the neo-Gothic wing was built to house the provincial palace.
Listed as: UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- Town Hall
Built: 1714
Style: Mosan Baroque.
Characteristics: Liège's Town Hall, built in the classical style and period, has recently been restored and repainted as it was originally, with oxblood red plaster. However, it has not lost its nickname, the Violet, inherited from a shop bearing this flower in the 14th century.
History: It was in the 13th century that the magistrates in charge of the municipal administration, wishing to assert their independence from the prince-bishop, chose a bourgeois house on Place du Marché, known by its sign "La Violette", as the venue for their meetings. The house was destroyed in 1468 by the troops of Charles the Bold and again in 1691 by French troops. It was rebuilt in its current state in 1714. Many artists, most of them from Liège, devoted their talents to decorating the house in the Baroque style.
Listed as: listed heritage site in 1942, exceptional heritage site in 2013.
- Perron de Liège
Construction: 1305
Characteristics: To the right of the Town Hall is the famous Liège Perron, a monument symbolising the attachment of the people of Liège to their freedoms. The Perron is a column on a platform (perron), which has symbolised the righteousness of justice and the pride of freedom throughout Liège since the Middle Ages. From the perron, the news and deeds of the country were proclaimed. The original monument has been embellished. From top to bottom, you can now see: a cross, a pinecone as an allegory of eternity, three Graces, the perron itself on its platform of three steps, lions as images of sovereignty, and several tiers of a fountain.
History: there is evidence of a fountain at this spot as early as 942. The monument in its current form was built in 1305 after the spring waters dried up. In 1468, Charles the Bold had the town destroyed and the Perron moved to Bruges to mark the town's submission to his authority. It returned to Liège on the death of the Duke of Burgundy in 1477. At the end of the 18th century, the sculptor Jean Del Cour was commissioned to restore the Perron, which had been knocked down by a storm.
Listed as: listed heritage site in 1936, exceptional heritage site in 2013.
- Curtius Palace
Built: between 1600 and 1610.
Style: Mosan.
Characteristics: the palace was built between 1600 and 1610 by Jean De Corte, an industrialist from Liège who was also treasurer and supplier to the King of Spain's armies in the Netherlands, under his Latinised name of Curtius, and to whom the Principality of Liège owed the development of its industries in the 17th century. The Curtius house, known as the Curtius palace by the people of the time, is the most representative example of the Mosan style. It was restored between 1904 and 1909. It forms part of the Grand Curtius museum complex and is listed as an exceptional heritage site by the Walloon Region.
History: Jean Curtius had the palace built between 1597 and 1605. In 1616, he left the palace to seek his fortune in Spain, leaving it to his son Pierre, who neglected its upkeep and sold it to the pawn shop. In 1812, in the midst of the French Revolution, the pawn shop was dismantled. The palace was given to the civil hospices, in an advanced state of deterioration. In 1901, the building passed into the hands of the City of Liège, which decided to use it to house its archaeological collections, which were later joined by decorative arts collections. The façade was rejuvenated by intensive cleaning in 1980 and 1981 and restored in 2003. In 1997, the City of Liège wanted to bring together all the museums in the district into a single one, and created the Grand Curtius complex, of which the palace is the centrepiece.
Listed as: listed heritage site in 1950, exceptional heritage site in 2016.
- Liège-Guillemins station
Construction: 1998 to 2009.
History: the project was awarded to Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava Valls in 1996. He was chosen for his experience in building three other stations in Europe: Stadelhofen station in Zurich, Lyon-Saint-Exupéry TGV station (formerly Lyon-Satolas), and Orient station in Lisbon, built for the 1998 International Exhibition. The station was inaugurated in September 2009 in the presence of Prince Philippe. It cost 445 million euros.
Characteristics: The volume of the vaulted arches makes Liège station one of the most spectacular in Europe. Calatrava took great care to ensure natural lighting in these slender spaces, giving it the air of a modern cathedral. A major project, the construction of this new station is accompanied by a partial overhaul of the Guillemins district, including a triangular square in front of the new station, an urban boulevard, and a pedestrian footbridge leading to the La Boverie Park and the Congress Hall on the Outremeuse island.
- Citadel Foothills
The Citadel Foothills is an area of countryside covering more than 90 hectares, partly located in the historic centre of Liège, almost half of which is listed as natural heritage by the Walloon Region. The site includes more than sixty monuments listed as material heritage by the Walloon Region and 13 kilometres of signposted walks.
- Cathedral treasury
The Trésor de la cathédrale de Liège (treasury of Liège cathedral) presents a journey through the art and history of the former principality of Liège in ten themed exhibition rooms. Among the items on display are goldsmith's and silversmith's works (the reliquary bust of Saint Lambert, the reliquary of Charles the Bold, and the Holy Cross), Byzantine and Mosan ivories (the Ivory of the Three Resurrections), manuscripts, sculptures, as well as a collection of high period textiles (the two shrouds of Saint Lambert, from the 8th and 11th centuries) and liturgical ornaments. Most of the treasure came from the former cathedral of Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Lambert in Liège, which was destroyed in 1794 during the Liège revolution.
DRINK:
- Peket
According to Liege folk legend, even in infancy, peket was the favourite drink of its emblematic figure, Tchantchès, who preferred it to the milk that babies are supposed to drink. Peket can be enjoyed in all the bistros and cafés of the Fervent City (Liège's informal and poetic name). It's a much-loved feature of the August 15 festivities in Outremeuse, where it's sold (usually in packs of small reusable disposable shot glasses carefully placed in a tray so they can be transported and spills avoided) by associations and shopkeepers. They temporarily set up their stalls in reserved areas along the streets of the historic district, which is closed off to pedestrians for the occasion. They can stroll from stall to stall and, as well as tasting the traditional (pure) peket, discover new varieties that have diversified over time. Regional cuisine includes recipes using peket, particularly for quail and duck. It is used in hesbignon stew and is also a wonderful accompaniment to smoked fish or strong cheeses such as Herve.
