If you want to take a piece of Liège with you ...
For anyone who wants to take a bit of Liège with them, the artists Schälling | Enderle* have designed a medallion representing a detail from the capital of a pillar (circa 1180) in the former Saint-Lambert Cathedral in Liège.
Why is Liege called “THE FIERY CITY”?
La Cité ardente’ is the name given to Liège by Henry Carton de Wiart to depict “the city itself, with its impulses and repulsions, its drives, its swoons and ardours”.
A few weeks after the publication of this historical novel in Paris, the future King Albert 1st used the same expression to describe the city at the inauguration of the Universal Exhibition in Liège on 26 April 1905: ‘the ardent city whose inhabitants are the tireless continuators of a past of hard work and age-old valour’.
From then on, Liège became the ‘Cité ardente’, just as Paris became the ‘Ville lumière’.
The events recounted in the novel are real: the sack of Dinant in 1466, the Battle of Brusthem in 1467, the 600 Franchimontois in 1468. The characters are real: Compagnons de la Verte Tente,, Guillaume de Berlo, Raes de Heers, Vincent de Bueren …
The frieze from ... Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach !
The little frieze that runs along the corridors and stairwell intrigues my visitors. She has a funny little story that I’m telling you below.
When I first wanted to decorate this space, I discovered that the distance between the wooden mouldings (15 cm) does not correspond to any of the standard dimensions of the wallpaper friezes. So I decided to put “my paw” in it. The first version was a ivy path.
After a few years, tired of ivy, the second version, was inspired by the decor of a lampshade discovered one day on a flea market.
