Liege

Today more than 200,000 workers are employed in mining, blast furnaces, steel (40 per cent of Belgian steel production), textiles, food, electrical equipment, chemical products, glassware (famous glass production in Val Saint-Lambert), not forgetting weapons manufacture ('FN' small arms from the Fabrique Nationale in Herstal). Liège is the home of the author Georges Simenon, who immortalized the town in his work, and enjoys increasing importance as a place of research and science (university, technical colleges and institutes).

Liège is at the junction of important international roads and railroad lines and an important trade center for inland river traffic, which in recent years has suffered considerable losses: the waterways of the Rhine and Ruhr, the Albert Canal, which links the Scheldt with the Meuse, and the canals crossing Hainaut from France, unite in Liège and continue into the Netherlands. The inland port covers 97ha/239 acres and can accommodate ships up to 2,500 tons. There is also a yachting marina. Liège is not a particularly attractive town, considering the devastation it has suffered throughout its history and only has a few buildings of historic interest. However, the town's long history is documented in the many churches which avoided destruction and in its many museums, which range among the best in the country.

According to legend Liège developed around a chapel which St Hubert, Bishop of Tongeren- Maastricht, had built in 705 on the spot where his predecessor, St Lambert, was murdered. In 721 Hubert moved the seat of his bishopric from Tongeen to Liège, but it was under Bishop Notker (972-1008), who elevated the bishopric to the status of a principality, that the town and region began to prosper. In contrast to the Flemish towns, the citizens of the Prince-Bishopric, which belonged to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, were involved in bitter quarrels with the bishop over their freedom, as his first allegiance was to the Catholic church. The internal feuds of the 13th and 14th C. were characterized by revolts against the rulers who tried to compromise and called for calm; as did Johann of Bavaria, appointed bishop in 1390, leader of a ruthless régime until 1417. At this time of turmoil the metallurgical industry was beginning to develop. Catastrophe befell Liège when in the 15th C. the Dukes of Burgundy, who had already acquired the rest of Belgium, attempted to take the principality, but came up against heavy opposition from the population. In 1467 the troops of Charles the Bold took the city and its fortifications were razed. The city rose again, but not even the efforts of 600 Franchimontois to break the siege could prevent the town being stormed, plundered and set ablaze again. The city burned for seven weeks and Charles the Bold ordered that only the churches and monasteries should survive the fire. It was not until 1475 that the citizens of Liège received permission to rebuild their town. With his death in 1477 they regained their independence which they again had to defend against Guillaume de la Marck. Under the prince bishop, Erard de la Marck (1505-1538), a new period of prosperity began coinciding with the work of Liège's greatest painter, Lambert Lombard (1505-1566). In the same century, as well as later, there was new progress as a result of coal mining