Saint Denis

Last church in this series (was that a sigh of relief?). This is Saint Denis, with its very unchurchy tower.

This church also features superb stained glass

a magnificent triptych by Jean Delcour

and an amazing sculpture of the most satanic looking priest I've ever seen. Keep your children away from Saint Curé d'Ars.

Eglise Saint Jean

The church of Saint Jean has featured in this blog before, or at least one of its crosses has. Here it is seen from the top of Saint Martin's church.

The interior of the church is very baroque

but the roof needs some work.

As part of Heritage Days we were allowed to go up the stairs to the organ and see it up close. Not the biggest church organ but quite photogenic nonetheless.

Eglise de la Sainte Croix

The Church of the Holy Cross is one of the best kept secrets of the city because it is still being restored and, from the outside, it looks like that:

But the restored stained glass looks fantastic

as do the restored statues (despite the cobwebs).

Eglise Saint Martin

As part of the heritage days, most public buildings were open to the public this weekend. We chose to go to several churches, not because they are not normally open, but because over the heritage weekend they allow people to visit sections that are normally closed. We saw towers, cellars, cloisters, crypts etc etc.

Here are some pictures from our visit to Saint Martin's church. It has featured on this blog before but not like this. Here are three restored stained glass windows:

A general view of the interior:

The bells inside the bell tower:

The view from the top of the bell tower:

And, finally, an external view from the rear, as we were going back down the hill:

Over the next few days I will be posting pictures from other churches and sites we visited during the heritage days.

La cathédrale Saint Lambert

Talking of heritage, this would have been the most important heritage site of Liège, if it was still standing:

St Lambert's cathedral was one of the biggest cathedrals in Europe and helped elevate Liège to the status of the 'Athens of the North', an important theological and philosophical centre (Edinburgh is also called the Athens of the North due to its many Greek neo-classical style 18th century buildings). The city became a hive of collegiate churches, ruled by bishop princes. After the French revolution and the nearly simultaneous Révolution Liégeoise, the cathedral became the symbol of the tyranny of the old order. In 1794, it was decided to demolish this symbol and to use the resulting rubble to divert the river and to improve the city. Here is the cathedral during the demolition process:

Finally, here is a model of the cathedral:

All the photos in this post were taken at an exhibition called Liège au temps des collégiales (Liège in the time of the collegiate churches) at the ancienne église Saint-André.

La Reine Astrid et le Prince de Liège

Tonight, in celebration of the 20 years of the Journées du Patrimoine (Heritage Days), a nuit blanche (white night) was organized in Liège. Museums and public buildings are open until 11pm and numerous concerts and performances are organized throughout the city. It was a good opportunity for us to see the interior of the Hôtel de Ville (Town Hall). In fact, we only were allowed in the main hall. It is quite an impressive building but the most unexpected thing we saw was this:

These are the clothes worn by Queen Astrid and her son, the Prince of Liège, when they visited the Hôtel de Ville in 1935. You can get an idea of what they must have looked like if you picture their clothes on their statues...

Christo has not come to the city

Facelifting for old high rise buildings has become quite fashionable of late. Here is a current work in progress by the riverside.