A thousand-year-old episcopal city situated on the dividing line between Germanic and Latin influences, the Liège metropolis is the economic and cultural hub of Wallonia, and the main city of the
Province of the same name.
Dubbed “the town of a thousand bell towers, the “Athens of the North” and, even more frequently “the glowing city”, this town of 200,000 inhabitants (600,000 with the agglomeration, one million in the Province) is internationally renowned for its glorious industrial past (coal mining, metallurgy, arms manufacture….) but also for the eniendliness of its inhabitants.
Economically, while continuing to excel in the traditional activities metal and electricity, Liège is turning today, with its
University and
science park, its
"groupement de redéploiement" and its development agency spurring it on, towards
logistics and transport,
the life sciences,
aerospace and
information technology .
Its
inland port (3rd largest in Europe), its freight
airport (in Europe’s top eight) and passenger airport, the large number of regional institutions established there, its splendid new
TGV station, its interesting
shopping centers (
town-centre,
Médiacité,
Belle-Île,… ), its standing as a top congress centre,… have made Liège the official economic capital of the Wallonia region.
Historically, Liège was for a long time the heart of a nearly thousand-year-old Principality and performed so heroically during the 14-18 war that it was the first city in the world to collectively receive the french Légion d’honneur.
Proud of its past and confident in its future, Liège is also a candidate to organise an
international exhibition in 2017.