Travel Guide Verviers

At the gateway to the Fagnes and in the heart of the Ardenne Bleue, Verviers has had a rich industrial past linked to wool and water. In the 1860s, the town was bourgeois and booming. Just look and admire the magnificent mansions built by the wealthy industrialists of the time, such as Château Peltzer, for example. Heusy is the city's prestigious district, and the Vesdre River is lined with excellent little restaurants that whet the appetites of walkers along the Fountains trail.Verviers, Wallonia's water capital, boasts a number of ancient fountains. If water is the privilege of this Vesdre region, orchards and forests are also very present. Such is the case in the Baelen region. Visit the square in front of the Saint-Fiacre church and admire L'Envol, a sculpture in pink granite and bronze by Catherine Fourniau. Limbourg and its Place Saint-Georges, covered with pebbles from the Vesdre river and listed as one of Wallonia's major heritage sites, is a delight of picturesque alleyways.Verviers also offers an important cultural heritage and local produce: rice tarts, Verviers cakes, chocolates..The surrounding area. The surrounding area can be summed up in two words: nature and culture. The valleys of the Hoëgne and Vesdre rivers, their tributaries and the hedged farmland of the Pays de Herve make up a natural landscape much appreciated by lovers of rugged terrain. The area is also popular with hikers.Victor Hugo was also enthralled by the appearance of the slopes of the Vesdre valley: "This is the most ravishing valley in the world. In summer, on a fine day, with a blue sky, it is sometimes a ravine, often a garden, always a paradise In terms of heritage in the broadest sense, the Vesdre region is characterized by the presence of a number of original buildings. A series of buildings whose footprint and scale continue to punctuate the region's landscape: the castles of industry. These are the former sites of woollen cloth production, but also the residences of the captains of the wool industry. Deindustrialization, which was dramatic in the Vesdre basin, has had paradoxically positive effects: the river is once again being fished. Verviers was a victim of the terrible floods of 2021, but is gradually rebuilding.