Saint Lambert's Cathedral, Liège

This enormous Gothic cathedral, dedicated to Saint Lambert of Maastricht, occupied the site of the present Place Saint-Lambert in the centre of Liège.

The disgraced and excommunicated Emperor Henry IV, who died on 7 August 1106, was buried here by the Prince-Bishop Otbert, after the entrails and heart had been removed.

[4] During the night of 28–29 April 1185, a violent fire broke out in one of the houses next to the cloisters, to which it immediately spread, and from there to the rest of the cathedral, which was destroyed.

In the middle of the 13th century, Pope Innocent IV granted indulgences to anyone who helped with the rebuilding of the cathedral.

The sandstone towers that characterised the west front were closely related to those of the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula in Brussels, and of the Grote Kerk in Breda, in the Netherlands, as well as of the Basilica of Our Lady in Tongeren.

The Archéoforum[1] of Liège, beneath the Place Saint-Lambert, makes it possible to see the ruins of the cathedral, besides the traces of other occupations of the site from the prehistoric period up to the 18th century.

[6] In 1794, under the French regime, after the Liège Revolution, the demolition of the cathedral, agreed the previous year, was put in hand.

Demolition began with the removal of the lead from the roof for use in the manufacture of arms and munitions, under the supervision of a Commission destructive de la cathédrale.

The site was entirely levelled in 1827, except for a section of masonry from the ancient passage between the cathedral and the bishop's palace, which was still standing in 1929.

After it had been sensitively modernised, the numerous treasures that had been saved from the old cathedral – works of gold, ivory, manuscripts, sculptures and reliquaries – which can be seen displayed in the cloisters, were transferred to it.