Day 13: Liège

Today we got on a train to go to the city of Liège, the biggest city in Wallonia. Belgium has two languages: Dutch and French. Wallonia is the French-speaking region of Belgium (Flanders is the Dutch-speaking part). Liège is located in the southern portion of Belgium, and is very hilly.

Liège had been an independent state ruled by a prince bishop until 1795, when the French Revolution began. Liège and Belgium were then incorporated as part of the French republic. In 1830, Belgium conducted a revolution against Holland, and Liège was a city of Belgium forevermore.

The former palace.

One of the first places we visited was the palace, now almost entirely made of churches. There used to be an official cathedral of Liege, but it was demolished in 1798 due to the French Revolution. The citizens of Liege supported the French Revolution, so it was actually these citizens who tore down the prince bishop’s cathedral. There is still a bishop in Liege, so a regular church was turned into a cathedral for him. The former palace shows a lot of gothic style, evidence of influence from the Middle Ages as well as proof of the prince bishop’s wealth. There are replica pillars that stand where the cathedral would have been. Incidentally, Liège is the city with the most churches in Western Europe.

There is a red building in the city near the cathedral. This is the current city hall. There is also a monument within the city square, standing as a remembrance of the former freedom of the city. This monument dates to the end of the 18th century.

There were two citadels in the history of Liège. The French built the first, and the Belgians built the second. It was very strong: surrounded and reinforced heavily on all sides. The only weakness was the top…a weakness the Germans took advantage of. The Germans bombed the citadel and turned it into a concentration camp. Today it stands as a gravesite for all those who have died there during WWII.

We followed a road that, had we gone further, would have taken us to the oldest city in Belgium. This city dates back as far as 50 AD. As we passed the houses, our tour guide noted that some houses had wooden frames. These are the houses that have been around since the Middle Ages. We hiked up a very steep hill, and went down the most terrifying set of stairs to go down.

The view was worth it, though.

The University of Liège was founded in 1817. Unfortunately, the ancient college hall was closed, so we didn’t get to see anything further.

After lunch, we walked to the Maison de la Métallurgie, a museum dedicated to the steel industry. Belgium was the second country to start the Industrial Revolution, and the steel industry became very important. This industry brought a lot of wealth to Belgium, but the wealth of the nation declined when the steel industry was no longer in effect. Have some pictures!

Good night, world.