Liège - Saint-Jacques-le-Mineur

Liège is the center of the largest Walloon agglomeration, and the cultural center of the Walloon region of Belgium. The city, with a population of about 200.000, is located at the confluence of the Ourthe and Meuse rivers.

Around 705, Saint Lambert of Maastricht is credited with completing the Christianization of the region, but conversion may still not have been quite universal, since Lambert was murdered in Liège. To enshrine his relics, the successor, Hubertus (later St. Hubert), built a basilica which became the nucleus of the city.
In 1468, following an uprising of the inhabitants against Burgundian rule, xof Burgundy had the city plundered and systematically destroyed. The few survivors who had fled into the forests—Charles the Bold allegedly had more than 5,000 inhabitants murdered—were only able to return to the city for reconstruction after seven years.

In 1789, partly in connection with the French Revolution, the Liège Revolution occurred. It was directed against the absolutist rule of the Prince-Bishop and was crushed in early 1791 by troops commissioned by the Holy Roman Empire. In 1795, Liège was occupied by French troops and became part of the First French Republic. The Congress of Vienna annexed it to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which in 1830 became the Kingdom of Belgium, to which Liège has belonged ever since.


The Church of St. James the Younger is the former abbey church of St. James's Abbey, founded in 1015 by Balderic II, Notker's successor. The abbey was secularized by Pope Pius VI in 1785 and converted into a collegiate church. The new chapter consisted of thirty canons. After the Revolution, the church became a parish church, the main cloister was converted into a park, and the monastery buildings were demolished.


The present late Gothic church, completed in 1538, replaced the early Romanesque church. The church is 90 meters long, 30 meters wide, and 38 meters high and has the floor plan of a Latin cross.

The choir stalls are from the 14th century