Where oh Where Wednesday: Huy

Not far from where we have our Bible camp in the Ardennes is the city of Huy. Mind you, calling this a city is a bit of a stretch. I remember one evening in Maastricht (a city of 120,000 inhabitants) that some Chinese students asked where the city was. They were quite sure that Maastricht was simply a village. And compared to Beijing that was certainly true. 

Huy, located in the French-speaking province of Liege, has a population of just over 20,000 - a town as we would call it. The town we live in (Lanaken, made up of 7 villages) is about the same size. And yet Huy is one of the oldest cities in Belgium to have the rights of a city. Situated oil the Meuse, as is Maastricht, it originated around a Roman ‘cat rum’, just as Maastricht. It was evangelized in the 6th century by Saint Domitian, the bishop of the city of Tongeren (which we looked at recently). 

In the Middle Ages Huy was extremely prosperous because it had an economy based on metallurgy, tanning, woodworking and wine. By the 10th century it was part of the larger Prince-Bishopric of Liege. But in 1066, the same year that the Normans conquered England at the battle of Hastings, Huy was the first city north of the Alps with a city charter. 

Around this same time a man named Peter the Hermit convinced people to head out on what was to be known as the First Crusade. The city remained important throughout the ages, being fortified by Louis XIV as well as the Dutch. It only started its decline as heavy industry left in the 20th century. And yet it is known for some interesting spectacles and people throughout the ages. 

John Joseph Merlin supposedly invented the roller skate in the 18th century. He was from Huy (and might be an interesting story for another time). Le Pere Pire, a Dominican friar who helped refugees after WWII was given the Nobel Peace Prize in 1958. And every year cyclists attack the ‘wall of Huy’ in the one-day cycling classic of the La Flèche Wallonne (The Walloon Arrow or Waalse Pijl). 

These days people know Huy for its beautiful attractions and for the nuclear power plant of Tihange. If anything goes wrong at Tihange, we are in the middle of what would be the affected area. Until then, we enjoy the beauty and the history that is this area of Belgium.