Citadel of Liège: The Historic Fortress of Liège, Belgium
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.2
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Belgium
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Dutch, Holy Roman Empire
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Citadel
On this page18 sections
History
The Citadel of Liège is a historic fortress in Liège, Belgium, that developed through successive medieval, early modern, and modern military phases. It served as the central fortification of the city until the end of the nineteenth century and formed part of the Meuse Citadels with Dinant, Huy, and Namur.
Medieval Walls and the First Citadel
Around 1000, during the rule of Notker, Prince-Bishop of Liège, the city built its first sandstone enceinte, an enclosing defensive wall system. The elongated rectangular enclosure covered about 25 hectares and was protected by a ditch, towers, and gates.
In the early twelfth century, Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV proposed expanding Liège’s defenses, but the necessary funds were not secured. New walls began in 1204 between the Porte Sainte-Walburge, Païenporte, and the Meuse, while another line was being built between Hocheporte and Sainte-Walburge. Henry I, Duke of Brabant, captured the unfinished defenses and sacked the city in May 1212. The townspeople completed the walls in 1215.
In 1255, Prince-Bishop Henri de Gueldre demolished part of the wall between Sainte-Walburge and Païenporte and built the Porte Sainte-Walburge with a fortified complex. It included towers, a drawbridge, a well, a prison, and stairs leading toward the valley. This complex became the first citadel on the site.
Liège was destroyed by the forces of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, in 1468. An attack on the heights by 600 Franchimontois, inhabitants of the Franchimont region, failed to prevent the city’s destruction.
Seventeenth-Century Reconstruction
In 1650, the Holy Roman Emperor authorized Prince-Bishop Maximilian Henry of Bavaria to construct a new fort. German engineers helped create a large earthen work with strong defenses, incorporating the Sainte-Walburge bastion built in 1548. French forces destroyed the fort soon after it was completed.
Construction of the first permanent masonry citadel began in 1663 and ended in 1671. French forces captured it in 1675 and demolished it the following year to prevent its use by their enemies. Maximilian Henry began rebuilding the fortress in 1684, but the 1685 Treaty of Versailles required its demolition, which took place again in 1689.
War and the Eighteenth-Century Defenses
During the Nine Years’ War, a conflict between France and a coalition of European powers, French troops commanded by Louis François, Duke of Boufflers, bombarded Liège in 1691 from near Fort de la Chartreuse. The following year, the Dutch general Menno van Coehoorn organized the city’s defense with protected trenches on the left bank of the Meuse, supported by light troops and artillery.
At the beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1701, the French engineer Vauban assigned Jacques de la Combe to repair the citadel. In 1702, engineer Filley described its condition as lamentable, and Vauban tried to persuade Prince-Bishop Joseph Clemens of Bavaria to pay for repairs. Allied forces under van Coehoorn besieged the citadel for three days that year.
The Treaties of Namur and Utrecht declared Liège neutral in 1703. New defensive works, including bastions and demi-lunes, were added between 1707 and 1711. A demi-lune was a detached crescent-shaped work placed in front of a fortification. The 1715 Treaty of the Barrier then required the citadel’s demolition, although the bastions and walls on the town side survived.
Dutch Reconstruction and Belgian Control
After Napoleon’s defeat, Dutch forces took control of the area in 1815. In 1816, William I of the Netherlands authorized the citadel’s reconstruction according to a plan by Camerlingh. The Belgian Revolution of 1830 brought a new change. Liège revolutionaries besieged the Dutch garrison from 19 September, forcing its capitulation, and Belgian forces then occupied the citadel.
The nineteenth-century reconstruction altered the fortress substantially. The Chapel of Saint Balbina, the old Porte Sainte-Walburge, and the Bastion du Clergé were demolished in 1817. The Sainte-Lambert and Sainte-François bastions were rebuilt, and additional demi-lune outworks were constructed.
Modern Military Use and the World Wars
After twelve modern forts were built around Liège, a royal decree of 1891 downgraded the citadel and nearby Fort de la Chartreuse as fortifications. The older fortress continued to function as a barracks and as the command post of the Fortified Position of Liège, a ring of modern forts around the city.
Belgian troops were stationed at the citadel in 1911 and helped defend Liège during the German invasion of August 1914. German artillery directly struck the fortress and set several spaces on fire. Its old casemates could not adequately withstand modern shells, so Colonel Eckstein, the commander, raised the white flag on 6 August 1914. The newer forts around Liège continued to resist.
After Liège surrendered, German forces used the citadel successively as troop accommodation, an internment camp, and a hospital for Allied soldiers. It remained a hospital after the 1918 Armistice.
During and after the Battle of Belgium in 1940, German forces used the citadel as a barracks, a training center for the Walloon Guards, and a prison for Belgian patriots. The Walloon Guards were a German-sponsored auxiliary formation created in occupied Belgium. The citadel also became an execution site for prisoners and resistance members from the Liège region, with most condemned prisoners shot at the former Saint-François bastion.
American forces occupied the citadel in 1945, and Belgian forces returned in 1947. A memorial to those executed there during the First and Second World Wars was established in 1946. The Enclos des Fusillés, or “enclosure of those shot by firing squad,” was dedicated in 1947.
Hospital Development and Heritage Protection
In 1967, the Citadel was transferred to Liège’s Public Centre for Social Welfare. Construction of the Centre hospitalier régional de la Citadelle began in 1970 and destroyed much of the old fortification. The hospital was built on driven piles because underground excavations lay beneath the site, and construction continued from 1974 to 1978.
The surviving fortress elements received heritage protection in stages. The small fort and Païenporte Well were protected in 1977, the bastions and curtain walls in 1982, and the thirteenth-century enceinte wall and Porte de Païenporte in 1988.
Remains
The surviving remains occupy a hill in Liège’s Sainte-Walburge neighborhood, overlooking the northern part of the city. The site stands at an average elevation of 111 metres above the Meuse and about 170 metres above sea level, facing Fort de la Chartreuse on the opposite bank. Much of the former citadel is now occupied by the regional hospital, while fortification remains survive in the surrounding parkland and hospital grounds.
Medieval Defensive Remains
Enclosing Walls and Gates
The earliest city defenses formed an elongated rectangle of roughly 25 hectares. Built in sandstone, the enclosure was surrounded by ditches and lined with towers and gates. A gate tower stood at the foot of Pierruse. The medieval defensive network included the Porte Sainte-Walburge, Païenporte, and Hocheporte, together with a wall descending toward the Meuse. The first bridge at the site of the Pont des Arches was built around 1033.
Païenporte Complex
The first citadel, created in 1255, incorporated the Porte Sainte-Walburge and a fortified group of towers, a well, a drawbridge, a prison, and stairs descending toward the valley. The protected remains include the Païenporte Well and small fort, the Porte de Païenporte, and a thirteenth-century enceinte wall extending from Païenporte to VallPotay.
Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Fortress
Pentagonal Citadel
The permanent masonry citadel completed in 1671 had a pentagonal plan with bastions at its corners and demi-lunes beyond the outer walls. Ditches surrounded the defenses, which were integrated with the city walls. Its five bastions were dedicated to Saint Lambert, Saint Francis, Saint Mary, Saint Maximilian, and Saint Henry. The Chapel of Saint Balbina stood at the center.
Later Bastions and Outworks
During the Napoleonic Wars, five bastions in the style associated with Vauban were added to the citadel. Further reconstruction between 1707 and 1711 introduced new bastions and demi-lunes. The nineteenth-century works rebuilt the Sainte-Lambert and Sainte-François bastions and added more demi-lune outworks. These two bastions were separated from the central court by a wall about 10 metres wide.
Twentieth-Century Military Remains
Command Post and Bunkers
A command post for the Fortified Position of Liège was established in the southern part of the citadel. Its surviving section contains three bunkers with rounded concrete forms, contrasting with the older masonry defenses. After the Second World War, an air-intake tower with filters for nuclear, biological, and chemical contaminants was added.
Southern Walls
The southern walls remain, together with twentieth-century bunkers on the southern side. These elements survive within the grounds shaped by the regional hospital, which occupies much of the former fortress site.
Enclos des Fusillés
The northern part of the site contains the Enclos des Fusillés memorial. Dedicated in 1947, it includes 197 crosses commemorating people executed at the citadel during the First and Second World Wars.
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