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| Liège | |||
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  Liège
Location in Belgium
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| Sovereign state |  Belgium |
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| Region |  Wallonia |
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| Community | French Community |
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| Province |  Liège |
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| Arrondissement | Liège | ||
| Coordinates | 50°38′0″N 05°34′0″E / 50.633333°N 5.566667°ECoordinates: 50°38′0″N 05°34′0″E / 50.633333°N 5.566667°E | ||
| Area | 69.39 km² | ||
| Population – Males – Females – Density |
187,086 (2006-01-01) 48.83% 51.17% 2696 inhab./km² |
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| Age distribution 0–19 years 20–64 years 65+ years |
(01/01/2006) 20.77% 60.63% 18.60% |
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| Foreigners | 16.05% (01/07/2005) | ||
| Unemployment rate | 31.38% (1 January 2006) | ||
| Mean annual income | €10,350/pers. (2003) | ||
| Mayor | Willy Demeyer (PS) | ||
| Governing parties | PS - cdH | ||
| Postal codes | 4000-4032 | ||
| Area codes | 04 | ||
| Website | www.liege.be | ||
Liège (French pronunciation: [ljɛːʒ]; Dutch: Luik (older spelling: Luick), [lœyk] (
listen); Walloon: Lidje; German: Lüttich; Latin: Leodium; until 1949, the city's name was written Liége, with the acute accent instead of a grave accent) is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the administrative capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium.
The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse River, near Belgium's eastern borders with the Netherlands and Germany, where the Meuse meets the Ourthe. It is in the former sillon industriel, the industrial backbone of Wallonia. The Liège municipality includes the former communes of Angleur, Bressoux, Chênée, Glain, Grivegnée, Jupille-sur-Meuse, Rocourt, and Wandre.
The city is the principal economic and cultural centre of Wallonia. Liège is, with 194,054 inhabitants as of 1 May 2009, the second most populous city in Wallonia after Charleroi.[1] The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of 1,879 km2 and has a total population of 749,110 as of 1 January 2008.[1][2] This includes a total of 52 municipalities, a.o. Herstal and Seraing, and ranks as the third most populous in Belgium, after Brussels and Antwerp.[2]
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The name in Latin 'Leodium' points clearly to the Germanic word 'leod' = people. Compare with the (old fashioned) Dutch words 'lui', 'luiden', 'lieden' (people), Old English léod. The modern German cognate is 'Leute'.
Although settlements already existed in Roman times, the first references to Liège date to 558, with the name Vicus Leudicus. Around 705, Saint Lambert of Maastricht is credited with completing the Christianization of the region, indicating that up to the early 8th-century, the religious practices of antiquity had survived in some form. Christian conversion may still not have been quite universal, since Lambert was murdered in Liège and thereafter regarded as a martyr for his faith. To enshrine St. Lambert's relics, his successor, Hubertus (later to become St. Hubert), built a basilica near the bishop's residence which became the true nucleus of the city. A couple of centuries later, the city became the capital of a prince-bishopric, which lasted from 985 till 1794. The first prince-bishop, Notger, transformed the city into a major intellectual and ecclesiastical centre, which maintained its cultural importance during the Middle Ages. Pope Clement VI recruited several musicians from Liège to perform in the Papal court at Avignon, whereby sanctioning the practice of polyphony in the religious realm. The city was renowned for its many churches, the oldest of which, St Martin's, dates from 682. Although nominally part of the Holy Roman Empire, in practice it possessed a large degree of independence.
The strategic position of Liège has made it a frequent target of armies and insurgencies over the centuries. It was fortified early on with a castle on the steep hill that overlooks the city's western side. In 1345, the citizens of Liège rebelled against Prince-Bishop Engelbert III de la Marck, their ruler at the time, and defeated him in battle near the city. After a rebellion against rule from Burgundy, King Louis XI of France and Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy captured and largely destroyed the city in 1468, after a bitter siege which was ended with a successful surprise attack. Liège was technically still part of the Holy Roman Empire. After 1477, the city came under the rule of the Habsburgs and, after 1555, under Spanish sovereignty, although its immediate rule remained in the hands of its prince-bishops. The reign of Erard de la Marck (1506–1538) coincides with the Renaissance Liégeoise. During the Counter-Reformation, the diocese of Liège was split and progressively lost its role as a regional power. In the 17th century the prince-bishops came from the Bavarian family Wittelsbach. They ruled over Cologne and other bishoprics in the northwest of the Holy Roman Empire as well.
The Duke of Marlborough captured the city from the Bavarian prince-bishop and his French allies in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession. In the middle of the eighteenth century the ideas of the French encyclopedists began to be received at Liège; Bishop de Velbruck (1772–84), encouraged their propagation and thus prepared the way for the Revolution Liégeoise, which burst upon the episcopal city on 18 August 1789. In the course of the 1794 campaigns of the French Revolution, the French army took the city and imposed a harsh and strongly anticlerical regime, destroying the great cathedral of Saint Lambert. The overthrow of the prince-bishopric was confirmed in 1801 by the Concordat co-signed by Napoléon Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII. France lost the city in 1815 when the Congress of Vienna awarded it to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Dutch rule lasted only until 1830, when the Belgian Revolution led to the establishment of an independent, Catholic and neutral Belgium which incorporated Liège. After this, Liège developed rapidly into a major industrial city which became one of continental Europe's first large-scale steel making centres.
Liège's fortifications were redesigned by Henri Alexis Brialmont in the 1880s and a chain of twelve forts was constructed around the city to provide defence in depth. This presented a major obstacle to Germany's army in 1914, whose Schlieffen Plan relied on being able to quickly pass through the Meuse valley and the Ardennes en route to France. The German invasion on August 5, 1914 soon reached Liège, which was defended by 30,000 troops under General Gérard Leman (see Battle of Liège). The forts initially held off an attacking force of about 100,000 men but were pulverised into submission by a five-day bombardment by the Germans' 42 cm Big Bertha howitzers. Due to faulty planning of the ventilation of the underground defense tunnels beneath the main citadel, one direct artillery hit caused a huge explosion, which eventually led to the surrender of the Belgian forces. The Belgian resistance was shorter than had been intended, but the twelve days of delay caused by the siege nonetheless contributed to the eventual failure of the German invasion of France. The city was subsequently occupied by the Germans until the end of the war. Liège received the Légion d'Honneur for its resistance in 1914.
The Germans returned in 1940, this time taking the forts in only three days. Most Jews were saved, with the help of the sympathising population, as many Jewish children and refugees were hidden in the numerous monasteries. The German occupiers were expelled by the United States Army in September 1944 but Liège was subsequently subjected to intense aerial bombardment, with more than 1,500 V1 and V2 missiles landing in the city between its liberation and the end of the war.
After the war, Liège suffered from the collapse of its steel industry, which produced high levels of unemployment and stoked social tension. In January 1961, disgruntled workers went on a rampage and severely damaged the central railway station Guillemins. Liège is also known as a traditionally socialist city. In 1991, powerful Socialist André Cools, a former Deputy Prime Minister, was gunned down in front of his girlfriend's apartment. Many suspected that the assassination was related to a corruption scandal which swept the Socialist Party, and the national government in general, after Cools' death. Two men were sentenced to twenty years in jail in 2004, for involvement in Cools' murder.
Liège has shown some signs of economic recovery in recent years with the opening up of borders within the European Union, surging steel prices, and improved administration. Several new shopping centres have been built, and numerous repairs carried out.
As of January 1, 2008, the municipality of Liège has a total population of 190,102.[1] The metropolitan area has about 750,000 inhabitants. Its inhabitants are predominantly French-speaking.
The city is a major educational hub in Belgium. There are 42,000 students attending more than 24 schools. The University of Liège, founded in 1817, has 17,000 students.
"Le Quinze Août" celebration takes place annually on August 15 in Outremeuse and celebrates the Virgin Mary. It is one of the biggest folkloric displays in the city, with a religious procession, a flea market, dances, concerts, and a series of popular games. Nowadays these celebrations start a few days earlier and last until the 16th. Some citizens open their doors to party goers, and serve "peket", the traditional local alcohol. This tradition is linked to the important folkloric character Tchantchès (Walloon for François), a hard-headed but resourceful Walloon boy who lived during Charlemagne's times. Tchantchès is remembered with a statue, a museum, and a number of puppets found all over the city.
Liège hosts one of the oldest Christmas Markets in Belgium.
The city is well-known for its very crowded folk festivals. The 15 August festival ("Le 15 août") is maybe the best known. The population gathers in a quarter named Outre-Meuse with plenty of tiny pedestrian streets and old yards. Many people come to see the procession but also to drink alcohol and beer, eat cabbage, sausages or pancakes or simply enjoy the atmosphere until the early hours. The Saint Nicholas festival around the 6 December is organized by and for the students of the University; for 24 hours, the students (wearing very dirty lab-coats) are allowed to beg for money for drinking.
Liège is renowned for its significant nightlife. Within the pedestrian zone, there is an area (a 100 m × 100 m (328.08 ft × 328.08 ft) square called Le Carré) with many lively pubs which are reputed to remain open until the last customer leaves (typically around 6 am). Another active area is the Place du Marché.
The "Batte" market is where most locals visit on Sundays. The outdoor market goes along the Meuse River and also attracts many visitors to Liège. The market typically runs from early morning to 2 o'clock in the afternoon every weekend year long. Produce, clothing, and snack vendors are the main concentration of the market.
The city annually hosts a significant jazz festival Jazz à Liège.
In Spring Liège also hosts the Liège-Bastogne-Liège cycle race, the oldest of the classic cycle races. The circuit starts from the city of Liège, goes to the city of Bastogne and returns to finish in the Liège suburb of Ans. The second half contains most of the climbs in the race, such as the Stockeu, Haute-Levée, La Redoute, Saint-Nicolas and the Col de Forges. With the 2009 Vuelta a España visiting Liège after four stages in the Netherlands, Liège is the only city that can boast having hosted stages of all three cycling Grand Tours.[3]
Liège has active alternative cinemas, Le Churchill, Le Parc and Le Sauvenière. There are also 2 mainstream cinemas, the Kinepolis multiplexes.
Liège also has a particular Walloon dialect, sometimes said to be one of Belgium's most distinctive. There is a large Italian community, and Italian can be heard in many places. Knowledge of other 'local' languages (German and Dutch) is usually rather poor, while English is not widely spoken compared to other European cities.
In the past, Liège was one of the most important steel-making centres in Europe. Starting in 1817, John Cockerill extensively developed the iron and steel industry. The industrial complex of Seraing was the largest in the world. It once boasted numerous blast furnaces and mills. Although now a mere shadow of its former self, steel production and the manufacture of steel goods remain important.
Liège has also been an important centre for gunsmithing since the Middle ages and the arms industry is still strong with the headquarters of FN Herstal. The economy of the region is now diversified, the most important centres are: Mechanical industries (Aircraft engine and Spacecraft propulsion), space technology, information technology, biotechnology and also production of water, beer or chocolate. A science park south east of the city, near the University of Liège campus, houses spin-offs and high technology businesses.
Liège is also a very important transport and logistics centre:[4]
See also: Notable people from Liège
Liège is twinned with:
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| Look up liege or Liège in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
The term Liege may refer to:
In Belgium (German: Lüttich, Dutch: Luik)
The term Liégeoise means of or related to Liège. Note the reversed accent.
| This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. |
Liège [1] is the main regional city in the province of Liège. It is also Belgium's fourth largest city, after Brussels, Antwerp, and Charleroi. It is the largest centre in Wallonia and is mostly an industrial city. It is near the German and Dutch border, and is about half an hour away from each border city; Aachen (Germany) and Maastricht (The Netherlands).
The population of Liège City is close to 200,000, and the metropolitan area has about 750,000 inhabitants. The city is the capital of Liège Province. The language spoken is French. The general understanding of English by the people in the city, like most of the French speaking regions, is poor. Picking up a few basic French phrases can be very helpful.
Liège has been an important city since the early Middle Ages. It was the capital of the Principality (prince-bishopric) of Liège, which remained an independent state until the French Revolution. In the 19th century it became an early centre of industrialism. The central area of Liège presents itself as a rather interesting mix of a historic town centre (dotted with a few extremely brutalist buildings from the 1960s and 70s), a rather elegant new town with wide boulevards, tall apartment buildings (some Art Deco) and a few pretty parks. The outskirts of Liège consist mainly of large industrial complexes and working-class areas, sprawling over the hills that surround the city.
Liège-Guillemins is the main station, located on the southwest part of the city. A Thalys [3] line serves Brussels, Leuven, Paris, Aachen and Cologne and Frankfurt. Beware that unlike most train stations in Belgium, Liège-Guillemins is not a walking distance away from the city centre. You can take a bus which cost €1.30 one way, or taxi which cost around 8-10 euros. The cheapest alternative being changing to another train that's heading to the station called "Liège-Palais". The fare of this trip is included in your ticket to Liège-Guillemins. The trip takes around 6 mins.
From Brussels, intercity service runs at least hourly and takes about 60 minutes from Brussels Nord. From Brussels Airport, take the airport shuttle to Leuven and take intercity service from there. From the north, connect in Maastricht. Trains run at least hourly and take about 30 minutes.
Once you're at Liège-Guillemins station, you can get to city centre by changing to a train heading for Gare du Palais, or by taking the number 1 or number 4 bus just outside the station to Place St. Lambert. Another alternative is route 48 which takes you to the Opera. Note that all routes run both ways at the stop of Liège-Guillemins station, make sure to take the buses that have either "Pl. St. Lambert" or "Opera" on their destination sign. Like aforementioned, change train to Liège-Palais station also takes you directly to centre.
Liège is the crossroads for several major motorways. Its "ring" has 6 branches. In clockwise order:
Being a fairly large city, many motorway exits are signposted for "Liège". When coming from Germany or Netherlands, it's best to follow the E25 to its end, then follow the road signs to the center. Coming from Luxembourg, it's best to exit at "Angleur" and follow signs to the center, or to continue on to the exit marked "Liège-centre". Finally, coming from Paris, Lille, Brussels, or Antwerp, follow signs to Luxembourg until you reach the exit marked "Liège-centre".
Liège is well-connected by bus, notably in the Eurolines [4] network. Eurolines arrivals/departures are on rue des Guillemins, near the train station.
Individuals arriving with their own boat are welcome at the port des Yachts.
Many organised cruises departing from Maastricht stop in the center of Liège, on the right bank (quai Marcatchou to quai Van Beneden).
Unlike most Belgian cities, Liège doesn't have an inner ring built along the path of the old city walls. Instead, the main streets were laid out along the old branches of the river, which makes their organisation a bit obscure for a non-native.
It's best to leave your car in one of the city-center parking garages, especially if you don't have a map of where exactly you're trying to get to.
The main routes for cars are:
TEC [5] is the main bus company. Most lines converge towards one of the city-center bus "terminals". These terminals are located at Place Léopold, Place Saint Lambert, Place République Française, and around the Opéra/Theater (all four very close to each other), plus at Place de la Cathédrale (about 5 minutes' walk away). The names of these 5 sites are used to indicate the direction of the bus, according to the line taken.
Several other lines leave from the train station Liège-Guillemins. Among them, two lines link the station with city center: the #4, a circular line (direction "Bavière" to go from the station to the center, direction "d'Harscamp" for the reverse trip), and the #1 which runs train station to city center and on to Coronmeuse.
More and more bus stops now show the waiting time for the next bus on each line, and many busses are equipped to display the next stop and adapted for people with reduced mobility.
Unfortunately, however, most lines don't run after midnight.
Travelling by bike in the city center is easy, but the hillsides can be a bit steep (between 5 and 15%). Reaching the higher neighborhoods will require a bit of training and a multi-speed bike!
Cycling paths are regularly added and improved, though the main roads remain a bit dangerous. Most one-way streets can be travelled in the opposite direction by cyclists. A map of cycling paths is available at the tourist information office. In addition, there's a "Ravel" (a path for walkers and cyclists) along the right bank of the river Meuse.
Most of the areas in city center are easily accessible on foot, and walking provides an interesting perspective on the city itself. The trip from the train station at Guillemins to the city center requires a bit more time - about 30 minutes.
On the opposite bank of the river, the Outremeuse district has few memorable buildings, but a welcoming atmosphere.
A university city with some 80,000 students, Liège has plenty of educational possibilities.
Other typical purchases are food and drink products:
The best options for shopping are around Place Cathédrale and Place Saint Lambert, and in particular at Vinâve d'Ile (Celio...), Saint-Michel (Van den Borre, Delhaize, C&A), the Opera Galleries (Zara, Springfield) and the Saint Lambert Galleries (FNAC, Média Markt, Inno, Champion), as well as along the roads towards the center (rues Féronstrée, Saint-Gilles, Puits-en-Sock in Outremeuse, Grétry in Longdoz...)
Several large commercial centers are located on the outskirts of the city: Belle-Ile (North-American style shopping mall with Carrefour on site, take bus 377 from the Opera) (Angleur), Rocourt, Boncelles, Herstal...
In addition to the local foods mentioned above, regional specialities include:
Other local recipes are available online here [13].
Prices unfortunately are fairly high, as in most other Belgian cities. Budget restaurants will cost about €12-€15 per person, drinks included, mid-range restaurants between €25 and €50, and splurge restaurants well over that!
For budget solutions, snack shops like any of the sanwicheries or kebab shops offer cheap yet tasty food. A Döner kebab typically costs 3-5 euro, and a sandwich is around 2-4. Note that in Liège all snack shops charge 50 cents for sauce, and usually another 50 cents for vegetables. For example you can see a meatball sandwich for 2 euro on the price list, however; after the sauce and the vegetables it will be 3 euro in total. It is recommended to look for convenient stores for soft drinks as they're over-priced in snack bars.
There are Northern American fastfood chain in the city: A McDonald's is located near the Opera, a BigMac meal is about €6, A Subway can be found behind the city hall, and a pizza hut can be found near the Opera.
The area known as "Le Carré" offers numerous options to drink and party 365 days per year, with a young, vibrant, student atmosphere. Also worth a visit: the Place du Marché, more "connected", and the area around Place Cathédrale, to see and be seen.
In addition, many of the cafés in the Le Carré area are a good alternative, with plenty of dancing and typically no entrance fee.
Liege is generally a safe city during daytime. However, be cautious at night especially for single females. It is not recommended for women to walk alone in the evenings as many foreign female students have experienced being followed late at night. Robbery is rare but harassment to single females occurs often, mostly verbal but some travelers have experienced assaults in off-downtown area. If where you're staying is more than a 5-min walk off the centre, it is suggested to take a cab (they have a line-ups around The Opera and Pont d'Avory bus terminal) after 10PM.
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