Liege - Architecture: Art Nouveau and More

From Art Nouveau to a New Architectural Landmark

Around 1900, Liège became one of Belgium's leading centres of Art Nouveau. Although less well known internationally than Brussels, the city developed its own distinctive interpretation of the movement through architects such as Paul Jaspar and Victor Rogister. Their elegant houses combine flowing floral ornamentation with innovative construction techniques, creating some of the finest examples of Art Nouveau in Wallonia.

A century later, Liège once again captured the world's attention with a new architectural icon. The opening of the Liège-Guillemins railway station in 2009, designed by Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava, transformed the city's image. Its spectacular structure of white steel, glass and concrete serves as the gateway to the European high-speed rail network. Rather than creating a traditional station with enclosed façades, Calatrava designed a transparent urban space where light, movement and engineering come together beneath a monumental vaulted roof stretching more than 160 metres. The station not only reconnects two parts of the city once divided by railway tracks but has also become the modern symbol of Liège itself.

The city also played an important role in the development of Belgian modernism. One of its finest ensembles is Val Benoît, the former campus of the University of Liège, built between the 1930s and the 1960s along the River Meuse. Designed by leading Belgian architects including Joseph Moutschen, Albert Puters and Albert Duesberg, the campus became a showcase of functional modernist architecture, combining engineering, education and innovative construction. After years of abandonment, the site is being carefully restored and transformed into a vibrant mixed-use district with offices, housing, cultural facilities and public spaces, preserving one of Belgium's most remarkable modernist ensembles.

This tour explores the fascinating journey from the elegant curves of Art Nouveau to the bold structural expression of twenty-first-century architecture, revealing how more than a century of architectural innovation has shaped the city of Liège.