Liège

Liège is first recorded in 558 as Vicus Leudicus. Its rise began with a murder: Saint Lambert, credited with completing the conversion of the region around 705, was killed here, and his successor Hubert built a basilica for his relics that became the nucleus of the city. From 985 to 1794 Liège was the capital of a prince-bishopric, nominally within the Holy Roman Empire but largely independent. Its first prince-bishop, Notger, made it a great intellectual and religious centre. In 1345 the citizens defeated their prince-bishop in battle, and the city's 32 guilds took control of its government, the most democratic system the Low Countries had known. Rebellion against Burgundy ended in 1468, when Charles the Bold captured and largely destroyed the city.

The Liège Revolution of 1789 created a short-lived Republic of Liège; the French arrived in 1794 and destroyed St Lambert's Cathedral. After a spell under the Netherlands, Liège joined independent Belgium in 1830 and became one of continental Europe's first large-scale steel centres, as John Cockerill built up iron and steel from 1817. Its ring of twelve forts held up the German invasion of August 1914 for twelve days before heavy artillery destroyed them; the city was occupied again in 1940 and liberated in September 1944.

Postwar Liège was a stronghold of the labour movement. The general strike of 1950 led to King Leopold III's abdication, and in the winter strike of 1960–61 striking workers badly damaged the Guillemins station. Coal and then steel declined, bringing high unemployment; the city has shown signs of economic recovery in recent years, and Calatrava's station opened in 2009 and a tram line in April 2025.

The city calls itself la cité ardente, the fervent city, a name that first recalled its revolts against Burgundy and later its industrial energy. It is known for crowded folk festivals, above all the 15 August celebration in Outremeuse, which draws more than 300,000 people to its narrow streets for a religious procession, a flea market, dances, concerts and peket, served by some residents from their own doors. It ends on the 16th with the mock burial of Matî l'Ohê, a ceremonial ham bone. Its emblem is Tchantchès, a stubborn but resourceful Walloon boy from Charlemagne's time, remembered with a statue, a museum and puppets all over the city.

Liège is renowned for its nightlife. In Le Carré, behind the opera house, pubs are reputed to stay open until the last customer leaves, and the Place du Marché is another late-night centre. The city has the Opéra Royal de Wallonie, the Liège Royal Philharmonic, the Les Ardentes electro-rock festival and Jazz à Liège, and its Walloon dialect is said to be one of the most distinctive in Belgium. A large Italian community means Italian is heard in many places.

Sport matters too. Standard Liège, winner of several national championships, is the main football club, and the city hosts the start and finish of Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the oldest of cycling's monuments; it was the first city to host stages of all three Grand Tours.

In January 2026 the municipality had 198,102 inhabitants, and the wider urban area about 750,000, the third largest in Belgium after Brussels and Antwerp. The municipality takes in Angleur, Bressoux, Chênée, Grivegnée, Jupille-sur-Meuse and other sections. Its people are mainly French-speaking, and the city is home to large Algerian, Moroccan, Turkish, Vietnamese and Italian communities.

Liège is the most important economic city in Wallonia. Steel once dominated, and the Seraing works upriver were the largest industrial complex in the world, but the economy has diversified into aerospace and space technology, information technology, biotechnology, and the production of water, beer and chocolate. Arms making goes back to the Middle Ages, and FN Herstal is based here. The river port is the third largest in Europe, and Liège Airport is among Europe's biggest cargo airports. The University of Liège, founded in 1817, has about 20,000 students, and a science park near its campus holds spin-off companies.

The week has a familiar shape: commuters on the trains and the new tram, students filling Le Carré at night, and Sunday morning at the Batte market along the Meuse. The city is also known as a traditionally socialist place, and the effects of industrial decline, unemployment remain part of local life, and the city was among the places hit by floods in July 2021.

Liège cooking is sweet-and-sour. Boulets à la liégeoise are two big meatballs served with fries in sauce lapin, made from sirop de Liège — a jelly-like spread made mainly from apples and pears cooked down slowly — cooked with raisins, onions, prunes and cloves. The same syrup is spread on bread with Herve, the strong-smelling washed-rind cheese from the Herve area of Liège province. Salade liégeoise mixes green beans, potatoes and bacon.

The Liège waffle, dense and studded with pearl sugar that caramelises on the iron, is often sold by street vendors. At the 15 August festival people eat cooked pears, boûkètes and sausages, and the local spirit is peket, the Walloon name for jenever, flavoured with juniper berries.

Local producers are household names. The lager Jupiler comes from Jupille on the edge of the city; Galler makes chocolate; and the water and soft-drink companies Spa and Chaudfontaine are among the region's best-known businesses. Cider and Herve cheese are typical things to buy. The Sunday Batte market along the quays is the place to find produce and snacks, and the restaurants and cafés of the Place du Marché and the pedestrian centre serve the city's classics.