Why is Liège called "THE FIERY CITY"?

"THE FIERY CITY" is the title of a book by Henry Carton de Wiart, reprinted © Jourdan Editeur 2005.

"Cité ardente" is the name given to Liège by Henry Carton de Wiart to depict "the city itself, with its impulses and repulsions, its training, its boredom and its ardour".

A few weeks after the publication in Paris of this historical novel, the future King Albert I used the same expression at the inauguration of the Universal Exhibition of Liege on 26 April 1905 to designate the city: "the fiery city whose inhabitants are the tireless perpetuators of a past of hard work and centuries of valour".

From that moment on, Liege became "Cité ardente" as Paris became "Ville lumière".

The facts told in the novel are real: Dinant’s sack in 1466, the Battle of Brusthem in 1467, the 600 Franchimontois in 1468. The characters have lived: Companion of the Green Tent, Guillaume de Berlo, Raes de Heers, Vincent de Bueren...

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator