Wallonia
Encyclopedia
Wallonia is the predominantly French-speaking
southern region of Belgium
. It is governed as the Walloon Region, which makes up 55% of the territory of Belgium but with only a third of its population. Contrary to the situation in Flanders
, the Walloon Region was not merged with the French Community of Belgium
, a political level responsible for matters related mainly to culture and education. The small German-speaking minority in the east forms the German-speaking Community of Belgium
, which has its own government and parliament for culture-related issues. The demonym
for Wallonia is Walloon
.
During the industrial revolution, Wallonia trailed only the United Kingdom in industrialization, capitalizing on its extensive deposits of coal
and iron
. This brought the region wealth, and, from the beginning of the 19th to the middle of the 20th centuries, Wallonia was the more prosperous half of Belgium. Since World War II
, however, the importance of heavy industry has greatly declined, and the Flemish Region
surpassed Wallonia in wealth as Wallonia economically declined. Wallonia now suffers from high unemployment and has a significantly lower GDP per capita than Flanders. The economic inequalities and linguistic divide between the two are major sources of political conflict in Belgium.
The capital of Wallonia is Namur
, and its largest metropolitan area is Liège
, while its most populous municipality proper is Charleroi
. Most of Wallonia's major cities and two-thirds of its population lie along the Sambre and Meuse valley, the former industrial backbone of Belgium. To the north lies the Central Belgian Plateau, which, like Flanders, is relatively flat and agriculturally fertile. In the southeast lie the Ardennes
; the area is sparsely populated and mountainous. Wallonia borders Flanders
and the Netherlands
in the north, France
to the south and west, and Germany
and Luxembourg
to the east.
The root of the word Wallonia, like the words Wales
, Cornwall
and Wallachia
, is the Germanic word Walha
, meaning the strangers. Wallonia is named after the Walloons
, the population of the Burgundian Netherlands
speaking Romance languages
. In Middle Dutch
(and French), the term Walloons also included the French-speaking population of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège or the whole population of the Romanic
sprachraum
within the medieval
Low Countries
.
Julius Caesar
conquered Gaul
in 57 BC. The Low Countries
became part of the larger Gallia Belgica
province
which originally stretched from southwestern Germany to Normandy and Holland. The population of this territory was Celtic with a Germanic
influence which was stronger in the north than in the south of the province. Gallia Belgica became progressively romanized
. The ancestors of the Walloons became Gallo-Romans and were called the "Walha
" by their Germanic neighbours. The "Walha" abandoned their Celtic dialects
and started to speak Vulgar Latin
.
The Merovingians gradually gained control of the region during the 5th century, under Clovis
. Due to the fragmentation of the former Roman Empire
, Vulgar Latin regionally developed along different lines and evolved into several langue d'oïl dialects, which in Wallonia became Picard
, Walloon
and Lorrain
. The oldest surviving text written in a langue d'oïl, the Sequence of Saint Eulalia
, has characteristics of these three languages and was likely written in or very near to what is now Wallonia around 880 AD. From the 4th to the 7th century, the Franks
established several settlements, probably mostly in the north of the province where the romanization was less advanced and some Germanic trace was still present. The language border began to crystallize between 700 under the reign of the Merovingians and Carolingian
s and around 1000 after the Ottonian Renaissance
. French-speaking cities, with Liège
as the largest one, appeared along the Meuse river
and Gallo-Roman cities such as Tongeren, Maastricht
and Aachen
became Germanized.
The Carolingian dynasty dethroned the Merovingians in the 8th century. In 843, the Treaty of Verdun
gave the territory of present-day Wallonia to Middle Francia
, which would shortly fragment, with the region passing to Lotharingia
. On Lotharingia's breakup in 959, the present-day territory of Belgium became part of Lower Lotharingia, which then fragmented into rival principalities and duchies by 1190. Literary Latin
, which was taught in schools, lost its hegemony during the 13th century and was replaced by old French
.
In the 15th century, the Dukes of Burgundy took over the Low Countries
. The death of Charles the Bold in 1477 raised the issue of succession, and the Liégeois took advantage of this to regain some of their autonomy. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, the Low Countries were governed successively by the Habsburg
dynasty of Spain (from the early 16th century until 1713-14) and later by Austria (until 1794). This territory was enlarged in 1521-22 when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
gained the Tournai
region from France.
Present-day Belgium was conquered in 1795 by the French Republic
during the French Revolutionary Wars
. It was annexed to the Republic, which later became the Napoleonic Empire. After the Battle of Waterloo
, Wallonia became part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
under King William of Orange
. The Walloons played an active part in the Belgian Revolution
in 1830. The Provisional Government of Belgium
proclaimed Belgium's independence and held elections for the National Congress
.
In the 19th century, the area began to industrialize, and Wallonia was the first fully industrialized
area in continental Europe
. This brought the region great economic prosperity, which was not mirrored in poorer Flanders and the result was a large amount of Flemish immigration to Wallonia. Belgium was divided into two divergent communities. On the one hand, the very catholic Flemish society was characterized by an economy centered on agriculture, and, on the other hand, Wallonia was the center of the continental European industrial revolution where liberal and socialist movements were rapidly emerging. Major strikes and general strike
s took place in Wallonia, including the Walloon jacquerie of 1886
, the Belgian general strike of 1893
, 1886, 1893, 1902, 1913 (for universal suffrage
), 1932 (depicted in Misère au Borinage
), and 1936, the general strike against Leopold III of Belgium
(1950), and the 1960-1961 Winter General Strike
for autonomy for Wallonia.
The profitability of the heavy industries to which Wallonia owed its prosperity started declining in the first half of the 20th century, and the center of industrial activity shifted north to Flanders. Wallonia would be surpassed in economic development by Flanders only in the 1960s, when industrial production in the northern part of Belgium would catch up with Wallonia. The loss of prosperity caused social unrest, and Wallonia sought greater autonomy in order to address its economic problems. In the wake of the 1960-1961 Winter General Strike
, the State reform in Belgium
process got under way. This reform started partly with the linguistic laws of 1962-63
, which defined the four language areas within the constitution
. But the strikes of 1960 which took place in Wallonia more than in Flanders
are not principally linked with the four language areas nor with the Communities but with the Regions. In 1968, the conflict between the communities burst out. The French speakers were driven out of the Catholic University of Leuven
amid shouts of "Walen buiten!" ("Walloons out!"). This led to State reform in Belgium
, which resulted in the creation of the Walloon Region and the French Community
, which have considerable autonomy.
Wallonia is landlocked
, with an area of 16,844 km², or 55% of the total area of Belgium. The Sambre and Meuse valley, from Liège
(70 m) to Charleroi
(120 m) is an entrenched river
in a fault line which separates Middle Belgium (elevation 100–200 m) and High Belgium (200–700 m). This fault line corresponds to a part of the southern coast of the late London-Brabant Massif. The valley, along with Haine
and Vesdre
valleys form the sillon industriel
, the historical centre of the Belgian coalmining and steelmaking industry, and is also called the Walloon industrial backbone. Due to their long industrial historic record, several segments of the valley have received specific names: Borinage
, around Mons
, le Centre
, around La Louvière
, the Pays noir
, around Charleroi
and the Basse-Sambre, near Namur
.
To the north of the Sambre and Meuse valley lies the Central Belgian plateau, which is characterized by intensive agriculture. The Walloon part of this plateau is traditionally divided into several regions: Walloon Brabant
around Nivelles
, Western Hainaut
' onMouseout='HidePop("75621")' href="/topics/Tournai">Tournai
), and Hesbaye
around Waremme
. South of the sillon industriel, the land is more rugged and is characterized by more extensive farming
. It is traditionally divided into the regions of Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse, Condroz
, Fagne
-Famenne
, the Ardennes
and Land of Herve
, as well as the Belgian Lorraine
around Arlon and Virton
. Dividing it into Condroz
, Famenne
, Calestienne, Ardennes
(including Thiérache
), and Belgian Lorraine (which includes the Gaume
) is more reflective of the physical geography. The larger region, the Ardennes, is a thickly forested plateau with caves and small gorges. It is host to much of Belgium's wildlife but little agricultural capacity. This area extends westward into France and eastward to the Eifel
in Germany via the High Fens
plateau, on which the Signal de Botrange
forms the highest point in Belgium at 694 metres (2,277 ft).
Administratively, Wallonia consists of the provinces of Walloon Brabant
, Hainaut, Liège
, Luxembourg
, and Namur
, respectively numbered one to five on the map at right. It is also divided into 20 administrative arrondissements and 262 municipalities.
Contributions to the development of science and technology have appeared since the beginning of the country's history. Baptismal font
of Renier de Huy
, is not the only example of medieval Walloon working expertise. An indication of that : the words "houille" (coal) or "houilleur" (coal miner) or "grisou" (damp) were coined in Wallonia and are from walloon
origin.
The economically important very deep coal mining in the course of the First Industrial Revolution has required highly reputed specialized studies for mining engineers
. But that was already the case before the Industrial Revolution, with an engineer as Rennequin Sualem
for instance.
Engineer Zenobe Gramme
invented the Gramme dynamo, the first generator to produce power on a commercial scale for industry. Chemist Ernest Solvay
gave his name to the Solvay process
for production of soda ash, important chemical for many industrial uses. Ernest Solvay also acted as a major philanthropist and gave its name to the Solvay Institute of Sociology
, the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management
and the International Solvay Institutes for Physics and Chemistry which are now part of the Université Libre de Bruxelles
. In 1911, he started a series of conferences, the Solvay Conferences on Physics and Chemistry
, which have had a deep impact on the evolution of quantum physics and chemistry.
Georges Lemaître
of the Université Catholique de Louvain
is credited with proposing the Big Bang
theory of the origin of the universe in 1927.
Three Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine
were awarded to Walloons: Jules Bordet
(Université Libre de Bruxelles
) in 1919, Albert Claude
(Université Libre de Bruxelles) together with Christian De Duve
(Université Catholique de Louvain) in 1974.
In the present day, Bureau Greisch has acquired an international reputation as consulting engineer and architect in the fields of structures, civil engineering and buildings, including the Millau Viaduct
in France.
Wallonia is rich in iron
and coal
, and these resources and related industries have played an important role in its history. In ancient times, the Sambre and Meuse valley was an important industrial area in the Roman Empire
. In the Middle Ages
, Wallonia became a center for brass
working and bronze
working, with Huy
, Dinant
and Chimay
being important regional centers. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the iron masters of Liège
developed a method of refining iron ore by the use of a blast furnace, called the Walloon Method
. There were also a few coal mines around Charleroi
and the Borinage
during this period, but their output was small, and was principally consumed as a fuel by various industries such as the important glass making industry that sprang up in the Charleroi
basin during the 14th century.
In the 19th century, the area began to industrialize, mainly the so-called sillon industriel
. It was the first fully industrialized
area in continental Europe
, and Wallonia was the second industrial power in the world, in proportion to its population and its territory, after the United Kingdom. The sole industrial centre in Belgium outside the collieries and blast furnaces of Wallonia was the historic cloth making town of Ghent
.
The two World wars curbed the continuous expansion that Wallonia had enjoyed up till that time. Towards the end of the 1950s, things began to change dramatically. The factories of Wallonia were by then antiquated, the coal was running out and the cost of extracting coal was constantly rising. It was the end of an era, and Wallonia has been making efforts to redefine itself. The restoration of economical development is high on the political agenda, and the government is encouraging development of industries, notably in cutting edge technology and in business parks. The economy is improving, but Wallonia is not yet at the level of Flanders
and is still suffering many difficulties.
The current Walloon economy is relatively diversified, although certain areas (especially around Charleroi and Liège) are still suffering from the steel industry crisis, with a high unemployment rate of up to 30% in some regions. Nonetheless, Wallonia has some companies which are world leaders in their specialized fields, including glass production, lime
and limestone
production, cyclotron
s and aviation parts. The south of Wallonia, bordering Luxembourg
, benefits from its neighbour's economic prosperity, with many Belgians working on the other side of the border; they are often called frontaliers. The Ardennes
area south of the Meuse River
is a popular tourist destination for its nature and outdoor sports, in addition to its cultural heritage, with places such as Bastogne
, Dinant
, Durbuy
, and the famous hot springs
of Spa
.
, only on the basis of agreements between the Walloon Region and this French Community). As the other Federating units of Belgium, it is entitled to pursue its own foreign policy including the signing of treaties. Following Philippe Suinen, it is an exception among federal States, and, as pointed out recently by Michel Quévit professor emeritus at the Université Catholique de Louvain
, a quasi State: "From 1831, the year of Belgium's independence, until the federalization of the country in 1970, Wallonia has increasingly asserted itself as a region in its own right." There is almost no possible veto of the Belgian State (except in very rare situations), and, even, Belgium, in many domains, is not able to sign an international treaty without the agreement of the Walloon Parliament. There is no legal hierarchy in the structure of the Belgian federal syste and no hierarchy between federal and regional authorities. For this reason, Belgium has many aspects of a confederation
.
The directly elected Walloon Parliament
was created in June 1995, replacing the Conseil régional wallon (Regional Council of Wallonia). The first Council sat on 15 October 1980 and was composed of members of the Belgian Chamber of People's Representatives
and the Belgian Senate
elected in Wallonia.
Since 23 April 1993, Belgium has been a federal state made up of Regions and communities.
Wallonia has a parliament (one chamber with 75 members elected for five years by direct universal suffrage) and a government responsible in front of the parliament. Its parliament exercises two functions:
The composition of the parliament for the 2009-2014 legislature is as follows:
There are no more representatives of the Front national ("nationalist" party and fascist party) in the Walloon Parliament.
The Walloon Government is elected by a political majority in Parliament. The government numbers nine members with the president. Each member is called a Walloon minister.
The head of the government, called Minister-President, is Rudy Demotte
, member of the Parti Socialiste (PS).
The coalition government for the future legislature is (as of 16 July 2009) a center left coalition PS-Ecolo-CDh with the same "Minister President" but other ministers, Paul Furlan, Jean-Marc Nollet, Philippe Henry, a woman Eliane Tillieux and old ministers Jean-Claude Marcourt
, André Antoine
. The chairman of the Parliament is a woman Êmily Hoyos.
, first used the word with a political meaning of cultural and regional affirmation, in opposition with the word Flanders used by the Flemish Movement
. The word had previously appeared in German and Latin as early as the 17th century.
The rising of a Walloon identity led the Walloon Movement to choose different symbols representing Wallonia. The main symbol is the "bold rooster" , also named "Walloon rooster" , which is widely used, particularly on arms and flags. The rooster was chosen as an emblem by the Walloon Assembly on 20 April 1913, and designed by Pierre Paulus
on 3 July 1913. The Flag of Wallonia
features the red rooster on a yellow background.
An anthem, (The Walloons' Song), written by Theophile Bovy in 1900 and composed by Louis Hillier in 1901, was also adopted. On September 21, 1913, the "national" feast day of Wallonia took place for the first time in Verviers
, commemorating the participation of Walloons during the Belgian revolution of 1830
. It is held annually on the third Sunday of September. The Assembly also chose a motto
for Wallonia, "Walloon Forever" , and a cry, "Liberty" . In 1998, the Walloon Parliament
made all these symbols official except the motto and the cry.
French is the major language spoken in Wallonia. German is spoken in the German-speaking Community of Belgium
, in the east. Belgian French is rather similar to that spoken in France, with some or even many vocabulary differences, including not only the use of the words septante (70) and nonante (90) in Belgium, as opposed to soixante-dix and quatre-vingt-dix in France.
There are noticeable Walloon accents, with the accent from Liège
and its surroundings being perhaps the most striking. Other regions of Wallonia also have characteristic accents, often linked to the regional language.
Walloons
traditionally also speak regional romance languages, all from the Langues d'oïl
group. Wallonia includes almost all of the area where Walloon
is spoken, a Picard
zone corresponding to the major part of the Province of Hainaut, the Gaume
(district of Virton
) with the Lorrain language
and a Champenois
zone. There are also regional Germanic languages, such as the Luxembourgish language
in Arelerland
(Land of Arlon). The regional languages of Wallonia are more important than in France, and they have been officially recognized by the government. With the development of education in French, however, these dialects have been in continual decline. There is currently an effort to revive Walloon dialects; some schools offer language courses in Walloon, and Walloon is also spoken in some radio programmes, but this effort remains very limited.
literature (regional language not French) is printed since the 16th century. But it did have its golden age, paradoxically, during the peak of the Flemish immigration to Wallonia
in the 19th century: "That period saw an efflorescence of Walloon literature, plays and poems primarily, and the founding of many theaters and periodicals." The New York Public Library
possesses a surprisingly large collection of literary works in Walloon, quite possibly the largest outside Belgium, and its holding are representative of the output. Out of nearly a thousand, twenty-six were published before 1880. Thereafter the numbers rise gradually year by year, reaching a peak of sixty-nine in 1903, and then they fall again, down to eleven in 1913. See 'Switching Languages', p. 153. Yves Quairiaux counted 4800 plays for 1860–1914, published or not. In this period plays were almost the only popular show in Wallonia. But this theater remains popular in the present-day Wallonia: Theater is still flourishing, with over 200 non-professional companies playing in the cities and villages of Wallonia for an audience of over 200,000 each year. There are links between French literature and (the very small) Walloon literature. For instance Raymond Queneau
set Editions Gallimard
the publication of a Walloon Poets' anthology. Ubu roi
was translated in Walloon by André Blavier ( an important pataphysician of Verviers
, friend of Queneau), for the new and important Puppets theater of Liège of Jacques Ancion, the Al Botroûle theater "at the umbilical cord" in Walloon indicating a desire to return to the source (according to Joan Cross). But Jacques Ancion wanted to develop a regular adult audience. From the 19th century he included the Walloon play Tati l'Pèriquî by E.Remouchamps and the avant-garde Ubu roi
by A.Jarry
. For Jean-Marie Klinkenberg, the dialectal culture is no more a sign of attachment to the past but a way to participate to a new synthesis
(member of the Groupe µ
) wrote also that Wallonia (and literature in Wallonia), is also present since the beginning of the history of formation of the French language. In their 'Histoire illustrée des lettres française de Belgique', Charlier and Hanse (editors), La Renaissance du livre, Bruxelles, 1958, published 247 pages (on 655 ), about the "French" literature in the Walloon provinces (or Walloon principalities of the Middle-Age, sometimes also Flemish provinces and principalities), for a period from the 11th to the 18th centuries. Among the works or the authors,the Sequence of Saint Eulalia
(9th century), La Vie de Saint Léger (10th century), Jean Froissart
(14th century in the County of Hainaut
), Jean d'Outremeuse
, Jean Lebel Jean Lemaire de Belges
(16th century from Bavay
), the Prince of Ligne (18th century, Beloeil). There is a Walloon Surrealism
, especially in the Province of Hainaut. Charles Plisnier
(1896–1952), born in Mons, won the Prix Goncourt
in 1936, for his novel Mariages and for Faux Passeports (short stories denouncing Stalinism, in the same spirit as Arthur Koestler
). He was the first foreigner to receive this honour. The Walloon Georges Simenon
is likely the most widely read French-speaking writer in the world, according to the Tribune de Genève
. More than 500 million of his books have been sold, and they have been translated into 55 languages. There is a link between the Jean Louvet
's work and the social issues in Wallonia
is spoken in the western province of Hainaut. Notable Belgian authors who wrote in Picard include Géo Libbrecht, Paul Mahieu, Paul André, Francis Couvreur and Florian Duc.
is a regional style of Romanesque art
from the valleys of the Meuse
in present-day Wallonia, and the Rhineland
, with manuscript illumination, metalwork, and enamel work from the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. Among them the masterpiece of Renier de Huy
and perhaps of the whole Mosan art Baptismal font at St Bartholomew's Church, Liège. The architecture of Roman churches of the Walloon country are also named mosan, exemplified by the Collegiate Church of Saint Gertrude
in Nivelles
, and the churches of Waha
and Hastière
, Dinant
. The Ornamental brassware
is also a part of the Mosan art and among these dinandiers Hugo d'Oignies and Nicolas de Verdun.
Jacques du Broeucq
was a sculptor of the 16th century.
Flemish art was not confined to the boundaries of modern Flanders and several leading artists came from or worked in areas in which langues d'oïl were spoken, from the region of modern Wallonia, e.g. Robert Campin
, Rogier van der Weyden (Rogier de la Pasture) and Jacques Daret
. Joachim Patinir
Henri Blès
are generally called mosan
painters. Lambert Lombard
(Liège, 1505 – 1566) was a Renaissance
painter, architect and theorist for the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. Gérard de Lairesse
, Bertholet Flemalle
were also important painters in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.
Gustave Serrurier-Bovy
(Liège
, 1858 - Antwerp, 1910) architect
and furniture
designer, credited (along with Paul Hankar
, Victor Horta
and Henry van de Velde
) with creating the Art Nouveau
style, coined as a style in Paris by Bing. And in Liège
also, principally Jean Del Cour
, the sculptor of the Virgin in Vinâve d'Isle, Léon Mignon
the sculptor of Li Tore and Louis Jéhotte
of the statue of Charlemagne
.
George Grard
(1901 — 1984) was a Walloon sculptor, known above all for his representations of the female, in the manner of Pierre Renoir
and Aristide Maillol
, modelled in clay or plaster, and cast in bronze.
During the 19th and 20th centuries many original romantic
, expressionist
and surrealist
Wallon painters emerged, including Félicien Rops
, Paul Delvaux
, Pierre Paulus
, Fernand Verhaegen
, Antoine Wiertz
, René Magritte
... The avant-garde CoBrA movement
appeared in the 1950s
There was an important musical life in Prince-Bishopric of Liège since the beginning. Between 1370 and 1468 flourished a school of music in Liège, with Johannes Brassart
, Johannes de Sarto and firstly Johannes Ciconia
, the third Master of Ars Nova
,.
The vocal music
of the so-called Franco-Flemish School
developed in the southern part of the Low Countries and was an important contribution to Renaissance culture. Robert Wangermée and Philippe Mercier wrote in their encyclopedic book about the Walloon music that Liège
, Cambrai
and Hainaut played a leading part in the so-called Franco-Flemish School
Among them were Orlande de Lassus
, Gilles Binchois
, Guillaume Dufay
In the 19th and 20th centuries, there was an emergence of major violinists, such as Henri Vieuxtemps
, Eugène Ysaÿe
(author of the unique opera in Walloon
during the 20th century Piére li houyeû - Pierre the miner - based on a real incident which occurred in 1877 during a miners' strike in the Liège region), and Arthur Grumiaux
, while Adolphe Sax
(born in Dinant
) invented the saxophone
in 1846. The composer César Franck
was born in Liège in 1822, Guillaume Lekeu
in Verviers
. More recently, André Souris
(1899–1970) was associated with Surrealism
. Zap Mama
is a more international group
Henri Pousseur
is generally regarded as a member of the Darmstadt School
in the 1950s. Pousseur's music employs serialism
, mobile forms, and aleatory, often mediating between or among seemingly irreconcilable styles, such as those of Schubert
and Webern
(Votre Faust), or Pousseur's own serial style and the protest song "We shall overcome" (Couleurs croisées). He was strongly linked to the social strikes in Liège
during the 1960s. He worked also with the French writer Michel Butor
. It is perhaps the reason why the documentary Misère au Borinage
, and especially its co-director Henri Storck
, is considered by Robert Stallaerts as the father of the Walloon cinema. He wrote: "Although a Fleming, he can be called the father of the Walloon cinema.". For F.André between Misère au Borinage and the films like those of the Dardenne brothers
(since 1979), there is Déjà s'envole la fleur maigre (1960) (also shot in the Borinage
), a film regarded as a point of reference in the history of the cinema. Like those of the Dardenne brothers
, Thierry Michel, Jean-Jacques Andrien
, Benoît Mariage
, or, e.g. the social documentaries of Patric Jean, the director of Les enfants du Borinage writing his film as a letter to Henri Storck. On the other hand, films such as Thierry Zéno
's Vase de noces
(1974), Mireille in the life of the others by Jean-Marie Buchet
(1979), C'est arrivé près de chez vous (English title: Man bites dog
) by Rémy Belvaux
and André Bonzel (1992) and the works of Noël Godin
and Jean-Jacques Rousseau
are influenced by surrealism
, absurdism
and black comedy
. The films of the Dardenne brothers
are also inspired by the Bible and Le Fils for instance is regarded as one of the most spiritually significant films.
The Ducasse de Mons
(Walloon French for Kermesse), is one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
. It comprises two important parts: the procession, the descent and the uprising of the Waltrude
's Shrine
, and the combat of Saint George
. The combat (after the procession), is played on the Trinity Sunday between 12.30 pm and 1.00 pm on on the Mons
'scentral square. It represents the fight between Saint George (the good) and the dragon (the evil). The dragon is displaced with the help of the white men (fr:Hommes blancs). The dragon fights Saint George by giving Tail
attacks. Saint George on his horse turns clockwise. And the dragon turns in the other direction. Saint George finally kills the dragon.
The Gilles
of Binche
(only of this town) and the giants' procession in Ath
are also one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
.
(throughout whole Wallonia), the Waffles of Liège
, the Herve cheese
and the Apple butter
named Sirop de Liège which people put on this cheese, three kinds of Trappist beer
(from Chimay
, Orval and Rochefort
), the Jenever
named Peket, May wine
named Maitrank, the Garden strawberry
of Wépion
. A great speciality of Dinant
is the Flamiche
: If you come to Dinant, you will not find these delicious cheese tarts in the windows of the shops. The reason for this is that this speciality must be eaten hot, which means, straight from the oven. As one restaurateur Dinantais said so well in a book about Walloon gastronomy "it is the client who waits for the flamiche, as the flamiche does not wait for the client. There are also the Ardennes
Ham
, the "Tarte al djote" (from Nivelles
) tart made with beet leaves and cheese for dessert. The 1957 Michelin Guide
noted that "regional food has put up heroïc resistance and the Walloon provinces and Flemish provinces are proud of their specialities."
or Wizzair. It serves as a low-cost alternative to Brussels Airport
, and it saw 3 million passengers in 2008, almost 4 milion in 2009. The Liège Airport
is specialized in freight, although it also operates tourist-oriented charter flights. Today, Liège is the 8th airport for European freight and aims to reach the 5th rank in the next decade.
is the single public transit authority for all of Wallonia, operating buses and trams. Charleroi
is the sole Walloon city to have a metro system
, the Charleroi Pre-metro
.
Wallonia has an extensive and well-developed rail network, served by the Belgian National Railway Company, SNCB.
Wallonia's numerous motorways fall within the scope of the TransEuropean Transport network programme (TEN-T). This priority programme run by the European Union provides more than 70,000 km of transport infrastructure, including motorways, express rail lines and roadways, and has been developed to carry substantial volumes of traffic.
. It is accessible to sea and river transporters weighing up to 2,500 tonnes, and to pushed two-barge convoys (4,500 tonnes, soon to be raised to 9,000 tonnes). Even if Wallonia does not have direct access to the sea, it is very well connected to the major ports thanks to an extensive network of navigable waterways that pervades Belgium, and it has effective river connections to Antwerp, Rotterdam
and Dunkirk.
On the west side of Wallonia, in the Province of Hainaut, the Strépy-Thieu boat lift
, permits river traffic of up to the new 1350-tonne standard to pass between the waterways of the Meuse and Scheldt
rivers. Completed in 2002 at an estimated cost of €
160 million (then 6.4 billion Belgian franc
s) the lift has increased river traffic from 256 kT in 2001 to 2,295 kT in 2006.
Francophone
The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
southern region of Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. It is governed as the Walloon Region, which makes up 55% of the territory of Belgium but with only a third of its population. Contrary to the situation in Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
, the Walloon Region was not merged with the French Community of Belgium
French Community of Belgium
The French Community of Belgium is one of the three official communities in Belgium along with the Flemish Community and the German speaking Community. Although its name could suggest that it is a community of French citizens in Belgium, it is not...
, a political level responsible for matters related mainly to culture and education. The small German-speaking minority in the east forms the German-speaking Community of Belgium
German-speaking Community of Belgium
The German-speaking Community of Belgium is one of the three federal communities of Belgium. Covering an area of 854 km² within the province of Liège in Wallonia, it includes nine of the eleven municipalities of the so-called East Cantons...
, which has its own government and parliament for culture-related issues. The demonym
Demonym
A demonym , also referred to as a gentilic, is a name for a resident of a locality. A demonym is usually – though not always – derived from the name of the locality; thus, the demonym for the people of England is English, and the demonym for the people of Italy is Italian, yet, in english, the one...
for Wallonia is Walloon
Walloons
Walloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive community within Belgium, important historical and anthropological criteria bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon...
.
During the industrial revolution, Wallonia trailed only the United Kingdom in industrialization, capitalizing on its extensive deposits of coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
and iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
. This brought the region wealth, and, from the beginning of the 19th to the middle of the 20th centuries, Wallonia was the more prosperous half of Belgium. Since World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, however, the importance of heavy industry has greatly declined, and the Flemish Region
Flemish Region
The Flemish Region is one of the three official regions of the Kingdom of Belgium—alongside the Walloon Region and the Brussels-Capital Region. Colloquially, it is usually simply referred to as Flanders, of which it is the institutional iteration within the context of the Belgian political system...
surpassed Wallonia in wealth as Wallonia economically declined. Wallonia now suffers from high unemployment and has a significantly lower GDP per capita than Flanders. The economic inequalities and linguistic divide between the two are major sources of political conflict in Belgium.
The capital of Wallonia is Namur
Namur (city)
Namur is a city and municipality in Wallonia, in southern Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia....
, and its largest metropolitan area is Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
, while its most populous municipality proper is Charleroi
Charleroi
Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as...
. Most of Wallonia's major cities and two-thirds of its population lie along the Sambre and Meuse valley, the former industrial backbone of Belgium. To the north lies the Central Belgian Plateau, which, like Flanders, is relatively flat and agriculturally fertile. In the southeast lie the Ardennes
Ardennes
The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and ridges formed within the Givetian Ardennes mountain range, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France , and geologically into the Eifel...
; the area is sparsely populated and mountainous. Wallonia borders Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
in the north, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to the south and west, and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
to the east.
Terminology
The term Wallonia can mean slightly different things in different contexts. One of the three federal regions of Belgium is still constitutionally defined as the Walloon Region, but the region's government has renamed it Wallonia, and it is commonly called Wallonia. Preceding April 1, 2010, when the renaming came into effect, Wallonia would sometimes refer to the territory governed by the Walloon Region, whereas Walloon Region referred specifically to the government. In practice, the difference between the different meanings is small, and what is meant is usually clear based on context.The root of the word Wallonia, like the words Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
and Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
, is the Germanic word Walha
Walha
Walhaz is a reconstructed Proto-Germanic word, meaning "foreigner", "stranger", "Roman", "Romance-speaker", or "Celtic-speaker". The adjective derived from this word can be found in , Old High German walhisk, meaning "Romance", in Old English welisċ, wælisċ, wilisċ, meaning "Romano-British" and in...
, meaning the strangers. Wallonia is named after the Walloons
Walloons
Walloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive community within Belgium, important historical and anthropological criteria bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon...
, the population of the Burgundian Netherlands
Burgundian Netherlands
In the history of the Low Countries, the Burgundian Netherlands refers to a number of Imperial and French fiefs ruled in personal union by the House of Valois-Burgundy and their Habsburg heirs in the period from 1384 to 1482...
speaking Romance languages
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
. In Middle Dutch
Middle Dutch
Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects which were spoken and written between 1150 and 1500...
(and French), the term Walloons also included the French-speaking population of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège or the whole population of the Romanic
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
sprachraum
Sprachraum
Sprachraum is a linguistic term used to designate a geographical region/district where a language, dialect, group or family of languages is spoken. The German word Sprachraum literally means "language area"....
within the medieval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
Low Countries
Low Countries
The Low Countries are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany....
.
History
Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
conquered Gaul
Gaul
Gaul was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, most of Switzerland, the western part of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the left bank of the Rhine. The Gauls were the speakers of...
in 57 BC. The Low Countries
Low Countries
The Low Countries are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany....
became part of the larger Gallia Belgica
Gallia Belgica
Gallia Belgica was a Roman province located in what is now the southern part of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, northeastern France, and western Germany. The indigenous population of Gallia Belgica, the Belgae, consisted of a mixture of Celtic and Germanic tribes...
province
Roman province
In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...
which originally stretched from southwestern Germany to Normandy and Holland. The population of this territory was Celtic with a Germanic
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
influence which was stronger in the north than in the south of the province. Gallia Belgica became progressively romanized
Romanization (cultural)
Romanization or latinization indicate different historical processes, such as acculturation, integration and assimilation of newly incorporated and peripheral populations by the Roman Republic and the later Roman Empire...
. The ancestors of the Walloons became Gallo-Romans and were called the "Walha
Walha
Walhaz is a reconstructed Proto-Germanic word, meaning "foreigner", "stranger", "Roman", "Romance-speaker", or "Celtic-speaker". The adjective derived from this word can be found in , Old High German walhisk, meaning "Romance", in Old English welisċ, wælisċ, wilisċ, meaning "Romano-British" and in...
" by their Germanic neighbours. The "Walha" abandoned their Celtic dialects
Gaulish language
The Gaulish language is an extinct Celtic language that was spoken by the Gauls, a people who inhabited the region known as Gaul from the Iron Age through the Roman period...
and started to speak Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin is any of the nonstandard forms of Latin from which the Romance languages developed. Because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography. All written works used Classical Latin, with very few exceptions...
.
The Merovingians gradually gained control of the region during the 5th century, under Clovis
Clovis I
Clovis Leuthwig was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the leadership from a group of royal chieftains, to rule by kings, ensuring that the kingship was held by his heirs. He was also the first Catholic King to rule over Gaul . He was the son...
. Due to the fragmentation of the former Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, Vulgar Latin regionally developed along different lines and evolved into several langue d'oïl dialects, which in Wallonia became Picard
Picard language
Picard is a language closely related to French, and as such is one of the larger group of Romance languages. It is spoken in two regions in the far north of France – Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy – and in parts of the Belgian region of Wallonia, the district of Tournai and a part of...
, Walloon
Walloon language
Walloon is a Romance language which was spoken as a primary language in large portions of the Walloon Region of Belgium and some villages of Northern France until the middle of the 20th century. It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language...
and Lorrain
Lorrain language
Lorrain is a language spoken by a minority of people in Lorraine in France and in Gaume in Belgium. It is one of the Langues d'oïl. It is classified as a regional language of France, and has the recognised status of a regional language of Wallonia...
. The oldest surviving text written in a langue d'oïl, the Sequence of Saint Eulalia
Sequence of Saint Eulalia
The Sequence of Saint Eulalia is the earliest surviving piece of French hagiography and one of the earliest extant vernacular writings, dating from around 880...
, has characteristics of these three languages and was likely written in or very near to what is now Wallonia around 880 AD. From the 4th to the 7th century, the Franks
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
established several settlements, probably mostly in the north of the province where the romanization was less advanced and some Germanic trace was still present. The language border began to crystallize between 700 under the reign of the Merovingians and Carolingian
Carolingian
The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...
s and around 1000 after the Ottonian Renaissance
Ottonian Renaissance
The Ottonian Renaissance was a limited "renaissance" of economy and art in central and southern Europe that accompanied the reigns of the first three emperors of the Saxon Dynasty, all named Otto: Otto I , Otto II , and Otto III , and which in large part depended upon their patronage.One of three ...
. French-speaking cities, with Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
as the largest one, appeared along the Meuse river
Meuse River
The Maas or Meuse is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea...
and Gallo-Roman cities such as Tongeren, Maastricht
Maastricht
Maastricht is situated on both sides of the Meuse river in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands, on the Belgian border and near the German border...
and Aachen
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
became Germanized.
The Carolingian dynasty dethroned the Merovingians in the 8th century. In 843, the Treaty of Verdun
Treaty of Verdun
The Treaty of Verdun was a treaty between the three surviving sons of Louis the Pious, the son and successor of Charlemagne, which divided the Carolingian Empire into three kingdoms...
gave the territory of present-day Wallonia to Middle Francia
Middle Francia
Middle Francia was an ephemeral Frankish kingdom created by the Treaty of Verdun in 843, which divided the Carolingian Empire among the sons of Louis the Pious...
, which would shortly fragment, with the region passing to Lotharingia
Lotharingia
Lotharingia was a region in northwest Europe, comprising the Low Countries, the western Rhineland, the lands today on the border between France and Germany, and what is now western Switzerland. It was born of the tripartite division in 855, of the kingdom of Middle Francia, itself formed of the...
. On Lotharingia's breakup in 959, the present-day territory of Belgium became part of Lower Lotharingia, which then fragmented into rival principalities and duchies by 1190. Literary Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, which was taught in schools, lost its hegemony during the 13th century and was replaced by old French
Old French
Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...
.
In the 15th century, the Dukes of Burgundy took over the Low Countries
Low Countries
The Low Countries are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany....
. The death of Charles the Bold in 1477 raised the issue of succession, and the Liégeois took advantage of this to regain some of their autonomy. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, the Low Countries were governed successively by the Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
dynasty of Spain (from the early 16th century until 1713-14) and later by Austria (until 1794). This territory was enlarged in 1521-22 when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
gained the Tournai
Tournai
Tournai is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt, in the province of Hainaut....
region from France.
Present-day Belgium was conquered in 1795 by the French Republic
French First Republic
The French First Republic was founded on 22 September 1792, by the newly established National Convention. The First Republic lasted until the declaration of the First French Empire in 1804 under Napoleon I...
during the French Revolutionary Wars
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
. It was annexed to the Republic, which later became the Napoleonic Empire. After the Battle of Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
, Wallonia became part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
United Kingdom of the Netherlands
United Kingdom of the Netherlands is the unofficial name used to refer to Kingdom of the Netherlands during the period after it was first created from part of the First French Empire and before the new kingdom of Belgium split out in 1830...
under King William of Orange
William III of the Netherlands
William III was from 1849 King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg until his death and the Duke of Limburg until the abolition of the Duchy in 1866.-Early life:William was born in Brussels as son of William II of the Netherlands and...
. The Walloons played an active part in the Belgian Revolution
Belgian Revolution
The Belgian Revolution was the conflict which led to the secession of the Southern provinces from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and established an independent Kingdom of Belgium....
in 1830. The Provisional Government of Belgium
Provisional Government of Belgium
The Provisional Government was formed as a revolutionary committee of notables during the Belgian Revolution on September 24, 1830 at the Brussels City Hall under the name of Administrative Commission....
proclaimed Belgium's independence and held elections for the National Congress
National Congress of Belgium
The Belgian National Congress was a temporary legislative assembly in 1830, established shortly after the Provisional Government of Belgium had proclaimed Belgian independence on October 4 of that year...
.
Industrial revolution
Industrialisation
Industrialization is the process of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial one...
area in continental Europe
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
. This brought the region great economic prosperity, which was not mirrored in poorer Flanders and the result was a large amount of Flemish immigration to Wallonia. Belgium was divided into two divergent communities. On the one hand, the very catholic Flemish society was characterized by an economy centered on agriculture, and, on the other hand, Wallonia was the center of the continental European industrial revolution where liberal and socialist movements were rapidly emerging. Major strikes and general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
s took place in Wallonia, including the Walloon jacquerie of 1886
Walloon Jacquerie of 1886
The Walloon jacquerie of 1886 was a working class jacquerie of a bloody spring as many Walloon scholars are calling it This violent upheaval of the Belgian, especially Walloon proletariat, caused a profound psychological shock in an atmosphere of fear of an inevitable and explosive social...
, the Belgian general strike of 1893
Belgian general strike of 1893
The Belgian general strike of 1893 was ordered by the General Board of the Belgian Labour Party after the Belgian Parliament rejected the Law Proposal on universal suffrage....
, 1886, 1893, 1902, 1913 (for universal suffrage
Universal suffrage
Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens...
), 1932 (depicted in Misère au Borinage
Misère au Borinage
Misère au Borinage is a 1933 Belgian documentary film directed by Henri Storck and Joris Ivens.The film opens with these words: Crisis in the Capitalist World. Factories are closed down, abandoned...
), and 1936, the general strike against Leopold III of Belgium
General strike against Leopold III of Belgium
The Royal Question refers to the 1950 political conflict surrounding the question whether King Leopold III should return to Belgium after World War II. A referendum was organised, in which the majority voted in favour of his return...
(1950), and the 1960-1961 Winter General Strike
1960-1961 Winter General Strike
1960–1961 Winter General Strike was the most important strike of the 20th century in Belgium and was called the Strike of the Century. Its triggering factor was Eyskens' government introducing a number of austerity policies under the general name Loi unique...
for autonomy for Wallonia.
The profitability of the heavy industries to which Wallonia owed its prosperity started declining in the first half of the 20th century, and the center of industrial activity shifted north to Flanders. Wallonia would be surpassed in economic development by Flanders only in the 1960s, when industrial production in the northern part of Belgium would catch up with Wallonia. The loss of prosperity caused social unrest, and Wallonia sought greater autonomy in order to address its economic problems. In the wake of the 1960-1961 Winter General Strike
1960-1961 Winter General Strike
1960–1961 Winter General Strike was the most important strike of the 20th century in Belgium and was called the Strike of the Century. Its triggering factor was Eyskens' government introducing a number of austerity policies under the general name Loi unique...
, the State reform in Belgium
State reform in Belgium
The term State reform in the Belgian context indicates a process towards finding constitutional and legal solutions for the problems and tensions between the different segments of the Belgian population, mostly Dutch-speakers of Flanders and French-speakers of Wallonia...
process got under way. This reform started partly with the linguistic laws of 1962-63
Language legislation in Belgium
-1830: freedom of languages and linguistic coercion:One of the causes of the Belgian Revolution of the 1830s was the growing ascendancy of the Dutch language in the administration of the Southern provinces of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
, which defined the four language areas within the constitution
Constitution of Belgium
The Constitution of Belgium dates back to 1831. Since then Belgium has been a parliamentary monarchy that applies the principles of ministerial responsibility for the government policy and the Trias Politica. The Constitution established Belgium as a centralised unitary state...
. But the strikes of 1960 which took place in Wallonia more than in Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
are not principally linked with the four language areas nor with the Communities but with the Regions. In 1968, the conflict between the communities burst out. The French speakers were driven out of the Catholic University of Leuven
Catholic University of Leuven
The Catholic University of Leuven, or of Louvain, was the largest, oldest and most prominent university in Belgium. The university was founded in 1425 as the University of Leuven by John IV, Duke of Brabant and approved by a Papal bull by Pope Martin V.During France's occupation of Belgium in the...
amid shouts of "Walen buiten!" ("Walloons out!"). This led to State reform in Belgium
State reform in Belgium
The term State reform in the Belgian context indicates a process towards finding constitutional and legal solutions for the problems and tensions between the different segments of the Belgian population, mostly Dutch-speakers of Flanders and French-speakers of Wallonia...
, which resulted in the creation of the Walloon Region and the French Community
French Community of Belgium
The French Community of Belgium is one of the three official communities in Belgium along with the Flemish Community and the German speaking Community. Although its name could suggest that it is a community of French citizens in Belgium, it is not...
, which have considerable autonomy.
Geography
Landlocked
A landlocked country is a country entirely enclosed by land, or whose only coastlines lie on closed seas. There are 48 landlocked countries in the world, including partially recognized states...
, with an area of 16,844 km², or 55% of the total area of Belgium. The Sambre and Meuse valley, from Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
(70 m) to Charleroi
Charleroi
Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as...
(120 m) is an entrenched river
Entrenched river
An entrenched river is a river that is confined to a canyon or gorge, usually with a relatively narrow width and little or no flood plain, and often with meanders worn into the landscape...
in a fault line which separates Middle Belgium (elevation 100–200 m) and High Belgium (200–700 m). This fault line corresponds to a part of the southern coast of the late London-Brabant Massif. The valley, along with Haine
Haine
The Haine is a river in southern Belgium and northern France , right tributary of the river Scheldt. The Haine gave its name to the County of Hainaut, and the present province of Hainaut. Its source is in Anderlues, Belgium...
and Vesdre
Vesdre
thumb|right|250px|The course of the VesdreThe Weser or Vesdre is a river in eastern Belgium, in the province of Liège, and is a right tributary to the river Ourthe. Its source lies in the High Fens , close to the border with Germany near Monschau...
valleys form the sillon industriel
Sillon industriel
The sillon industriel is the former industrial backbone of Wallonia and thus of Belgium. It runs across Wallonia, passing from Dour, in Borinage, in the west, to Verviers in the east, through Mons, La Louvière, Charleroi, Namur, Huy, and Liège, following the valleys of the rivers Haine, Sambre,...
, the historical centre of the Belgian coalmining and steelmaking industry, and is also called the Walloon industrial backbone. Due to their long industrial historic record, several segments of the valley have received specific names: Borinage
Borinage
The Borinage is an area in the Walloon province of Hainaut. The provincial capital Mons is located in the east of the Borinage. In French the inhabitants are called Borains...
, around Mons
Mons
Mons is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, of which it is the capital. The Mons municipality includes the old communes of Cuesmes, Flénu, Ghlin, Hyon, Nimy, Obourg, Baudour , Jemappes, Ciply, Harmignies, Harveng, Havré, Maisières, Mesvin, Nouvelles,...
, le Centre
Centre (Wallonia)
The Centre is the name of an important basin of the Sillon industriel in Wallonia between Mons and Charleroi . Its most important town is La Louvière...
, around La Louvière
La Louvière
La Louvière is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. La Louvière's municipality includes the old communes of Haine-Saint-Paul, Haine-Saint-Pierre, Saint-Vaast, Trivières, Boussoit, Houdeng-Aimeries, Houdeng-Gœgnies, Maurage, and Strépy-Bracquegnies...
, the Pays noir
Pays Noir
The Pays Noir refers to a region of Belgium, centered on Charleroi in the province of Hainaut in Wallonia so named for the geological presence of coal...
, around Charleroi
Charleroi
Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as...
and the Basse-Sambre, near Namur
Namur (city)
Namur is a city and municipality in Wallonia, in southern Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia....
.
To the north of the Sambre and Meuse valley lies the Central Belgian plateau, which is characterized by intensive agriculture. The Walloon part of this plateau is traditionally divided into several regions: Walloon Brabant
Walloon Brabant
Walloon Brabant is a province of Wallonia in Belgium. It borders on the province of Flemish Brabant and the provinces of Liège, Namur and Hainaut . Its capital is Wavre...
around Nivelles
Nivelles
Nivelles is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. The Nivelles municipality includes the old communes of Baulers, Bornival, Thines, and Monstreux....
, Western Hainaut
Western Hainaut
Western Hainaut is the name of the North-West part of the Province of Hainaut . Since the creation of an autonomous Wallonia, it is also called Wallonie Picarde, in light of the regional use of the Picard language....
' onMouseout='HidePop("75621")' href="/topics/Tournai">Tournai
Tournai
Tournai is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt, in the province of Hainaut....
), and Hesbaye
Hesbaye
Hesbaye or Haspengouw , is a region spanning the south of the Belgian province of Limburg, the east of the Belgian provinces of Flemish Brabant and Walloon Brabant, and the northwestern part of the province of Liège.The Limburgish portion contains the cities of Tongeren, Sint-Truiden, Bilzen and...
around Waremme
Waremme
Waremme is a Walloon municipality located in the province of Liège, in Belgium. The city is located on the River Geer , in the loessic Hesbaye region...
. South of the sillon industriel, the land is more rugged and is characterized by more extensive farming
Extensive farming
Extensive farming or Extensive agriculture is an agricultural production system that uses small inputs of labour, fertilizers, and capital, relative to the land area being farmed....
. It is traditionally divided into the regions of Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse, Condroz
Condroz
The Condroz is a region in the center of Wallonia and in the south of Belgium. Its unofficial capital is Ciney....
, Fagne
Fagne (natural region)
The Fagne or la Fagne is a natural region in southern Belgium and northern France, sometimes grouped with Famenne as Fagne-Famenne. It should not be confused with the High Fens , which are further east and straddle the border of Belgium and Germany....
-Famenne
Famenne
Famenne is a natural region in southern Belgium. Together with The Fagne or la Fagne, west of the river Meuse, it is part of the Fagne-Famenne natural region...
, the Ardennes
Ardennes
The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and ridges formed within the Givetian Ardennes mountain range, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France , and geologically into the Eifel...
and Land of Herve
Land of Herve
The Land of Herve is a 420 km² natural region of Wallonia located between the Vesdre and Meuse rivers and the borders separating Belgium from the Netherlands and Germany....
, as well as the Belgian Lorraine
Belgian Lorraine
Belgian Lorraine is the part of Lorraine that lies in the south of the Belgian province of Luxembourg, part of Wallonia.The term is used in a geological context, bordering the Ardennes in the north...
around Arlon and Virton
Virton
Virton is the most southerly town in Belgium and the administrative centre of a Walloon municipality and district of the same name, located in the Belgian province of Luxembourg...
. Dividing it into Condroz
Condroz
The Condroz is a region in the center of Wallonia and in the south of Belgium. Its unofficial capital is Ciney....
, Famenne
Famenne
Famenne is a natural region in southern Belgium. Together with The Fagne or la Fagne, west of the river Meuse, it is part of the Fagne-Famenne natural region...
, Calestienne, Ardennes
Ardennes
The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and ridges formed within the Givetian Ardennes mountain range, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France , and geologically into the Eifel...
(including Thiérache
Thiérache
The Thiérache or Grande Thiérache is a region of France and Belgium united by similar geography and architecture, including the presence of hedgerows, grassland, hilly terrain, scattered settlements, and traditionally-built stone or brick houses with stone dividing walls and slate roofs.Located in...
), and Belgian Lorraine (which includes the Gaume
Gaume
Gaume is a region in the far south of Belgium. Situated at a lower altitude than the Ardennes, it is delineated by borders with France, Luxembourg and the Belgian Ardennes. Gaume is the roman part of the Belgian Lorraine region...
) is more reflective of the physical geography. The larger region, the Ardennes, is a thickly forested plateau with caves and small gorges. It is host to much of Belgium's wildlife but little agricultural capacity. This area extends westward into France and eastward to the Eifel
Eifel
The Eifel is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the south of the German-speaking Community of Belgium....
in Germany via the High Fens
High Fens
The High Fens , which were declared a nature reserve in 1957, are an upland area, a plateau region in the province of Liège, in the east of Belgium and nearby parts of Germany, lying between the Ardennes and the Eifel highlands. It is the largest nature reserve or park in Belgium, with an area of ;...
plateau, on which the Signal de Botrange
Signal de Botrange
The Signal de Botrange is the highest point in Belgium, located in the High Fens , at . It is the top of a broad plateau, and a road crosses the summit, passing an adjacent café. In 1923, the six-metre-high Baltia tower was built on the summit to allow visitors to reach an altitude of 700 m...
forms the highest point in Belgium at 694 metres (2,277 ft).
Subdivisions
Walloon Brabant
Walloon Brabant is a province of Wallonia in Belgium. It borders on the province of Flemish Brabant and the provinces of Liège, Namur and Hainaut . Its capital is Wavre...
, Hainaut, Liège
Liège (province)
Liège is the easternmost province of Belgium and belongs to the Walloon Region. It is an area of French and German ethnicity. It borders on the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and in Belgium the provinces of Luxembourg, Namur, Walloon Brabant , and those of Flemish Brabant and Limburg . Its...
, Luxembourg
Luxembourg (Belgium)
Luxembourg is the southernmost province of Wallonia and of Belgium. It borders on the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, France, and the Belgian provinces of Namur and Liège. Its capital is Arlon, in the south-east of the province.It has an area of 4,443 km², making it the largest Belgian province...
, and Namur
Namur (province)
Namur is a province of Wallonia, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on the Walloon provinces of Hainaut, Walloon Brabant, Liège and Luxembourg in Belgium, and on France. Its capital is the city of Namur...
, respectively numbered one to five on the map at right. It is also divided into 20 administrative arrondissements and 262 municipalities.
Cities
The largest cities in Wallonia include, as of 2011's population figures (the metro area of Liège is the most important: 600,000 inhabitants)- CharleroiCharleroiCharleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as...
(204,146) - LiègeLiègeLiège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
(195,790) - NamurNamur (city)Namur is a city and municipality in Wallonia, in southern Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia....
(110,428) - MonsMonsMons is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, of which it is the capital. The Mons municipality includes the old communes of Cuesmes, Flénu, Ghlin, Hyon, Nimy, Obourg, Baudour , Jemappes, Ciply, Harmignies, Harveng, Havré, Maisières, Mesvin, Nouvelles,...
(92,529) - La LouvièreLa LouvièreLa Louvière is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. La Louvière's municipality includes the old communes of Haine-Saint-Paul, Haine-Saint-Pierre, Saint-Vaast, Trivières, Boussoit, Houdeng-Aimeries, Houdeng-Gœgnies, Maurage, and Strépy-Bracquegnies...
(78,414) - TournaiTournaiTournai is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt, in the province of Hainaut....
(69,792) - SeraingSeraingSeraing is a Walloon municipality of Belgium in Province of Liege. The municipality of Seraing includes the old communes of Boncelles, Jemeppe-sur-Meuse, and Ougrée. With Liège, Herstal, Saint-Nicolas, Ans, and Flémalle it forms the greater Liège agglomeration...
(63,500) - VerviersVerviersVerviers is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. The Verviers municipality includes the old communes of Ensival, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, and Heusy...
(56,596) - MouscronMouscronMouscron is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. The Mouscron municipality includes the old communes of Dottignies , Luingne, and Herseaux .-Middle Ages:...
(55,687) - HerstalHerstalHerstal, formerly known as Heristal, or Héristal, is a municipality of Belgium. It lies in the country's Walloon Region and Province of Liege along the Meuse river. Herstal is included in the "Greater Liège" agglomeration, which counts about 600,000 inhabitants...
(38,969) - Braine-l'AlleudBraine-l'AlleudBraine-l'Alleud is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant, about 20 kilometers south of Brussels. The Braine-l'Alleud municipality includes the former municipalities of Braine-l'Alleud proper, Ophain-Bois-Seigneur-Isaac, and Lillois-Witterzée. It also includes...
(38,748) - ChâteletChâtelet, BelgiumChâtelet is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, on the river Sambre. As of January 1, 2006, Châtelet had a total population of 35,621. The total area of the municipality is 27.03 km² which gives a population density of 1,318 inhabitants per km². It is composed of...
(36,131)
Science and technology
Baptismal font
A baptismal font is an article of church furniture or a fixture used for the baptism of children and adults.-Aspersion and affusion fonts:...
of Renier de Huy
Renier de Huy
Renier de Huy was a 12th century metalworker and sculptor to whom is attributed a major masterpiece of Mosan art, the baptismal font at St Bartholomew's Church, Liège in Liege, Belgium of 1107–18...
, is not the only example of medieval Walloon working expertise. An indication of that : the words "houille" (coal) or "houilleur" (coal miner) or "grisou" (damp) were coined in Wallonia and are from walloon
Walloon language
Walloon is a Romance language which was spoken as a primary language in large portions of the Walloon Region of Belgium and some villages of Northern France until the middle of the 20th century. It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language...
origin.
The economically important very deep coal mining in the course of the First Industrial Revolution has required highly reputed specialized studies for mining engineers
Mining engineering
Mining engineering is an engineering discipline that involves the practice, the theory, the science, the technology, and application of extracting and processing minerals from a naturally occurring environment. Mining engineering also includes processing minerals for additional value.Mineral...
. But that was already the case before the Industrial Revolution, with an engineer as Rennequin Sualem
Rennequin Sualem
Rennequin Sualem was a Walloon carpenter and engineer Rennequin Sualem was a Walloon carpenter and engineer Rennequin Sualem was a Walloon carpenter and engineer (Jemeppe-sur-Meuse (Walloon Country) 1645 - Bougival (France 1708 ).In 1667-1668 Lieutenant-Governor of the castle of Huy ordered the...
for instance.
Engineer Zenobe Gramme
Zénobe Gramme
Zénobe Théophile Gramme was a Belgian electrical engineer. He invented the Gramme machine, a type of direct current dynamo capable of generating smoother and much higher voltages than the dynamos known to that point.In 1873 he and Hippolyte Fontaine accidentally discovered that the device was...
invented the Gramme dynamo, the first generator to produce power on a commercial scale for industry. Chemist Ernest Solvay
Ernest Solvay
Ernest Gaston Joseph Solvay was a Belgian chemist, industrialist and philanthropist.Born at Rebecq, he was prevented by acute pleurisy from going to university...
gave his name to the Solvay process
Solvay process
The Solvay process, also referred to as the ammonia-soda process, is the major industrial process for the production of soda ash . The ammonia-soda process was developed into its modern form by Ernest Solvay during the 1860s...
for production of soda ash, important chemical for many industrial uses. Ernest Solvay also acted as a major philanthropist and gave its name to the Solvay Institute of Sociology
Solvay Institute of Sociology
The Solvay Institute of Sociology [SIS; Institut de Sociologie Solvay] assumed its first “definitive form” on November 16, 1902, when its founder Ernest Solvay, a wealthy Belgian chemist, industrialist, and philanthropist, inaugurated the original edifice of SIS in Parc Léopold...
, the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management
Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management
The Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management is an economics and management school and a Faculty of the Université libre de Bruxelles, in Brussels, Belgium.-History:...
and the International Solvay Institutes for Physics and Chemistry which are now part of the Université Libre de Bruxelles
Université Libre de Bruxelles
The Université libre de Bruxelles is a French-speaking university in Brussels, Belgium. It has 21,000 students, 29% of whom come from abroad, and an equally cosmopolitan staff.-Name:...
. In 1911, he started a series of conferences, the Solvay Conferences on Physics and Chemistry
Solvay Conference
The International Solvay Institutes for Physics and Chemistry, located in Brussels, were founded by the Belgian industrialist Ernest Solvay in 1912, following the historic invitation-only 1911 Conseil Solvay, the turning point in world physics...
, which have had a deep impact on the evolution of quantum physics and chemistry.
Georges Lemaître
Georges Lemaître
Monsignor Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître was a Belgian priest, astronomer and professor of physics at the Catholic University of Louvain. He was the first person to propose the theory of the expansion of the Universe, widely misattributed to Edwin Hubble...
of the Université Catholique de Louvain
Université catholique de Louvain
The Université catholique de Louvain, sometimes known, especially in Belgium, as UCL, is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It is located in Louvain-la-Neuve and in Brussels...
is credited with proposing the Big Bang
Big Bang
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
theory of the origin of the universe in 1927.
Three Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...
were awarded to Walloons: Jules Bordet
Jules Bordet
Jules Jean Baptiste Vincent Bordet was a Belgian immunologist and microbiologist. The bacterial genus Bordetella is named after him.-Biography:Bordet was born at Soignies, Belgium...
(Université Libre de Bruxelles
Université Libre de Bruxelles
The Université libre de Bruxelles is a French-speaking university in Brussels, Belgium. It has 21,000 students, 29% of whom come from abroad, and an equally cosmopolitan staff.-Name:...
) in 1919, Albert Claude
Albert Claude
Albert Claude was a Belgian biologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974 with Christian de Duve and George Emil Palade. He studied engineering, and then medicine...
(Université Libre de Bruxelles) together with Christian De Duve
Christian de Duve
Christian René, viscount de Duve is a Nobel Prize-winning cytologist and biochemist. De Duve was born in Thames Ditton, Surrey, Great Britain, as a son of Belgian refugees. They returned to Belgium in 1920...
(Université Catholique de Louvain) in 1974.
In the present day, Bureau Greisch has acquired an international reputation as consulting engineer and architect in the fields of structures, civil engineering and buildings, including the Millau Viaduct
Millau Viaduct
The Millau Viaduct is a cable-stayed road-bridge that spans the valley of the river Tarn near Millau in southern France. Designed by the British architect Norman Foster and French structural engineer Michel Virlogeux, it is the tallest bridge in the world, with one mast's summit at . It is the...
in France.
Economy
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
and coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
, and these resources and related industries have played an important role in its history. In ancient times, the Sambre and Meuse valley was an important industrial area in the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. In the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, Wallonia became a center for brass
Brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...
working and bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
working, with Huy
Huy
Huy is a municipality of Belgium. It lies in the country's Walloon Region and Province of Liege. Huy lies along the river Meuse, at the mouth of the small river Hoyoux. It is in the sillon industriel, the former industrial backbone of Wallonia, home to about two-thirds of the Walloon population...
, Dinant
Dinant
Dinant is a Walloon city and municipality located on the River Meuse in the Belgian province of Namur, Belgium. The Dinant municipality includes the old communes of Anseremme, Bouvignes-sur-Meuse, Dréhance, Falmagne, Falmignoul, Foy-Notre-Dame, Furfooz, Lisogne, Sorinnes, and Thynes.-Origins to...
and Chimay
Chimay
Chimay a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On January 1, 2006, Chimay had a total population of 9,774. The total area is 197.10 km² which gives a population density of 50 inhabitants per km²...
being important regional centers. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the iron masters of Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
developed a method of refining iron ore by the use of a blast furnace, called the Walloon Method
Oregrounds iron
Oregrounds iron was a grade of iron that was regarded as the best grade available in 18th century England. The term was derived from the small Swedish city of Öregrund. The process to create it is known as the Walloon method....
. There were also a few coal mines around Charleroi
Charleroi
Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as...
and the Borinage
Borinage
The Borinage is an area in the Walloon province of Hainaut. The provincial capital Mons is located in the east of the Borinage. In French the inhabitants are called Borains...
during this period, but their output was small, and was principally consumed as a fuel by various industries such as the important glass making industry that sprang up in the Charleroi
Charleroi
Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as...
basin during the 14th century.
In the 19th century, the area began to industrialize, mainly the so-called sillon industriel
Sillon industriel
The sillon industriel is the former industrial backbone of Wallonia and thus of Belgium. It runs across Wallonia, passing from Dour, in Borinage, in the west, to Verviers in the east, through Mons, La Louvière, Charleroi, Namur, Huy, and Liège, following the valleys of the rivers Haine, Sambre,...
. It was the first fully industrialized
Industrialisation
Industrialization is the process of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial one...
area in continental Europe
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
, and Wallonia was the second industrial power in the world, in proportion to its population and its territory, after the United Kingdom. The sole industrial centre in Belgium outside the collieries and blast furnaces of Wallonia was the historic cloth making town of Ghent
Ghent
Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...
.
The two World wars curbed the continuous expansion that Wallonia had enjoyed up till that time. Towards the end of the 1950s, things began to change dramatically. The factories of Wallonia were by then antiquated, the coal was running out and the cost of extracting coal was constantly rising. It was the end of an era, and Wallonia has been making efforts to redefine itself. The restoration of economical development is high on the political agenda, and the government is encouraging development of industries, notably in cutting edge technology and in business parks. The economy is improving, but Wallonia is not yet at the level of Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
and is still suffering many difficulties.
Calcium oxide
Calcium oxide , commonly known as quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. It is a white, caustic, alkaline crystalline solid at room temperature....
and limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
production, cyclotron
Cyclotron
In technology, a cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator. In physics, the cyclotron frequency or gyrofrequency is the frequency of a charged particle moving perpendicularly to the direction of a uniform magnetic field, i.e. a magnetic field of constant magnitude and direction...
s and aviation parts. The south of Wallonia, bordering Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, benefits from its neighbour's economic prosperity, with many Belgians working on the other side of the border; they are often called frontaliers. The Ardennes
Ardennes
The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and ridges formed within the Givetian Ardennes mountain range, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France , and geologically into the Eifel...
area south of the Meuse River
Meuse River
The Maas or Meuse is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea...
is a popular tourist destination for its nature and outdoor sports, in addition to its cultural heritage, with places such as Bastogne
Bastogne
Bastogne Luxembourgish: Baaschtnech) is a Walloon municipality of Belgium located in the province of Luxembourg in the Ardennes. The municipality of Bastogne includes the old communes of Longvilly, Noville, Villers-la-Bonne-Eau, and Wardin...
, Dinant
Dinant
Dinant is a Walloon city and municipality located on the River Meuse in the Belgian province of Namur, Belgium. The Dinant municipality includes the old communes of Anseremme, Bouvignes-sur-Meuse, Dréhance, Falmagne, Falmignoul, Foy-Notre-Dame, Furfooz, Lisogne, Sorinnes, and Thynes.-Origins to...
, Durbuy
Durbuy
Durbuy is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Luxembourg. On 1 January 2007 the municipality had 10,633 inhabitants. The total area is 156.61 km², giving a population density of 67.9 inhabitants per km²....
, and the famous hot springs
Hot Springs
Hot Springs may refer to:* Hot Springs, Arkansas** Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas*Hot Springs, California**Hot Springs, Lassen County, California**Hot Springs, Modoc County, California**Hot Springs, Placer County, California...
of Spa
Spa, Belgium
Spa is a municipality of Belgium. It lies in the country's Walloon Region and Province of Liège. It is situated in a valley in the Ardennes mountain chain, some southeast of Liège, and southwest of Aachen. As of 1 January 2006, Spa had a total population of 10,543...
.
Politics and government
Wallonia has its own powers and doesn't share them with the other Regions or Communities (except with the Community Wallonia-Brussels but not in the framework of the Belgian constitutionConstitution of Belgium
The Constitution of Belgium dates back to 1831. Since then Belgium has been a parliamentary monarchy that applies the principles of ministerial responsibility for the government policy and the Trias Politica. The Constitution established Belgium as a centralised unitary state...
, only on the basis of agreements between the Walloon Region and this French Community). As the other Federating units of Belgium, it is entitled to pursue its own foreign policy including the signing of treaties. Following Philippe Suinen, it is an exception among federal States, and, as pointed out recently by Michel Quévit professor emeritus at the Université Catholique de Louvain
Université catholique de Louvain
The Université catholique de Louvain, sometimes known, especially in Belgium, as UCL, is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It is located in Louvain-la-Neuve and in Brussels...
, a quasi State: "From 1831, the year of Belgium's independence, until the federalization of the country in 1970, Wallonia has increasingly asserted itself as a region in its own right." There is almost no possible veto of the Belgian State (except in very rare situations), and, even, Belgium, in many domains, is not able to sign an international treaty without the agreement of the Walloon Parliament. There is no legal hierarchy in the structure of the Belgian federal syste and no hierarchy between federal and regional authorities. For this reason, Belgium has many aspects of a confederation
Confederation
A confederation in modern political terms is a permanent union of political units for common action in relation to other units. Usually created by treaty but often later adopting a common constitution, confederations tend to be established for dealing with critical issues such as defense, foreign...
.
Walloon Parliament
The Walloon Parliament , formerly the Walloon Regional Council , is the Parliament of the Walloon Region, commonly called Wallonia, one of the self-governing Regions of Belgium with Flanders and the Brussels-Capital Region...
was created in June 1995, replacing the Conseil régional wallon (Regional Council of Wallonia). The first Council sat on 15 October 1980 and was composed of members of the Belgian Chamber of People's Representatives
Belgian Chamber of People's Representatives
The Belgian Chamber of Representatives is one of the two chambers in the bicameral Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Senate...
and the Belgian Senate
Belgian Senate
The Belgian Senate is one of the two chambers of the bicameral Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Chamber of Representatives. It is considered to be the "upper house" of the Federal Parliament.-History and future:...
elected in Wallonia.
Since 23 April 1993, Belgium has been a federal state made up of Regions and communities.
Wallonia has a parliament (one chamber with 75 members elected for five years by direct universal suffrage) and a government responsible in front of the parliament. Its parliament exercises two functions:
- It discusses and passes decrees, and they can take initiatives to draw them up. After this, decrees are sanctioned and promulgated by the Walloon government.
- It controls the Walloon government. Control is exercised via the vote.
- It ratifies the international treaties linked to his powers.
The composition of the parliament for the 2009-2014 legislature is as follows:
- Parti Socialiste (socialist party PS): 29
- Mouvement Réformateur (liberal democrats, center right MR): 19
- EcoloEcoloEcolo is a French-speaking Belgian green political party in Wallonia, Brussels and the German-speaking Community of Belgium...
(green party): 14 - Centre Démocrate Humaniste (former Christian party: CDh): 13
There are no more representatives of the Front national ("nationalist" party and fascist party) in the Walloon Parliament.
The Walloon Government is elected by a political majority in Parliament. The government numbers nine members with the president. Each member is called a Walloon minister.
The head of the government, called Minister-President, is Rudy Demotte
Rudy Demotte
Rudy W.G. Demotte is a Belgian socialist politician and present Minister-President of Wallonia since 19 July 2007, replacing Elio Di Rupo, one month after an historical defeat of the socialists in the federal election...
, member of the Parti Socialiste (PS).
The coalition government for the future legislature is (as of 16 July 2009) a center left coalition PS-Ecolo-CDh with the same "Minister President" but other ministers, Paul Furlan, Jean-Marc Nollet, Philippe Henry, a woman Eliane Tillieux and old ministers Jean-Claude Marcourt
Jean-Claude Marcourt
Jean-Claude Marcourt is since 2009 the Vice-Minister-President, minister of Economy and Foreign Affairs of the Walloon government and Vice-Minister-President and Minister of Higher Education of the Government of the French Community. He is member of the Belgian Francophone Socialist Party...
, André Antoine
André Antoine
André Antoine was a French actor, theatre manager, film director, author, and critic who is considered the father of modern mise en scène in France.-Biography:...
. The chairman of the Parliament is a woman Êmily Hoyos.
Symbols
The first appearance of the French word Wallonie as a reference to the romance world as opposed to Germany is said to date from 1842. Two years later, it was first used to refer to the romance part of the young country of Belgium. In 1886, the writer and walloon militant Albert MockelAlbert Mockel
Albert Mockel was a Belgian Symbolist poet. Born in Ougrée, he was the editor of La Wallonie, an influential journal of Belgian Symbolism...
, first used the word with a political meaning of cultural and regional affirmation, in opposition with the word Flanders used by the Flemish Movement
Flemish movement
The Flemish Movement is a popular term used to describe the political movement for emancipation and greater autonomy of the Belgian region of Flanders, for protection of the Dutch language, and for the over-all protection of Flemish culture and history....
. The word had previously appeared in German and Latin as early as the 17th century.
The rising of a Walloon identity led the Walloon Movement to choose different symbols representing Wallonia. The main symbol is the "bold rooster" , also named "Walloon rooster" , which is widely used, particularly on arms and flags. The rooster was chosen as an emblem by the Walloon Assembly on 20 April 1913, and designed by Pierre Paulus
Pierre Paulus
Baron Pierre Paulus de Châtelet was a Walloon expressionist painter, most known as the designer of "the bold rooster" adopted on 3 July 1913 by the Walloon Assembly for the flag of Wallonia....
on 3 July 1913. The Flag of Wallonia
Flag of Wallonia
The Flag of Wallonia is called the bold rooster or Walloon Rooster . It is the emblem of Wallonia and of the French Community of Belgium. It features a red bold rooster, bold meaning its right leg is lifted and its mouth is closed, on a yellow background. Those colors come from the city of Liège...
features the red rooster on a yellow background.
An anthem, (The Walloons' Song), written by Theophile Bovy in 1900 and composed by Louis Hillier in 1901, was also adopted. On September 21, 1913, the "national" feast day of Wallonia took place for the first time in Verviers
Verviers
Verviers is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. The Verviers municipality includes the old communes of Ensival, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, and Heusy...
, commemorating the participation of Walloons during the Belgian revolution of 1830
Belgian Revolution
The Belgian Revolution was the conflict which led to the secession of the Southern provinces from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and established an independent Kingdom of Belgium....
. It is held annually on the third Sunday of September. The Assembly also chose a motto
Motto
A motto is a phrase meant to formally summarize the general motivation or intention of a social group or organization. A motto may be in any language, but Latin is the most used. The local language is usual in the mottoes of governments...
for Wallonia, "Walloon Forever" , and a cry, "Liberty" . In 1998, the Walloon Parliament
Walloon Parliament
The Walloon Parliament , formerly the Walloon Regional Council , is the Parliament of the Walloon Region, commonly called Wallonia, one of the self-governing Regions of Belgium with Flanders and the Brussels-Capital Region...
made all these symbols official except the motto and the cry.
Regional languages
German-speaking Community of Belgium
The German-speaking Community of Belgium is one of the three federal communities of Belgium. Covering an area of 854 km² within the province of Liège in Wallonia, it includes nine of the eleven municipalities of the so-called East Cantons...
, in the east. Belgian French is rather similar to that spoken in France, with some or even many vocabulary differences, including not only the use of the words septante (70) and nonante (90) in Belgium, as opposed to soixante-dix and quatre-vingt-dix in France.
There are noticeable Walloon accents, with the accent from Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
and its surroundings being perhaps the most striking. Other regions of Wallonia also have characteristic accents, often linked to the regional language.
Walloons
Walloons
Walloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive community within Belgium, important historical and anthropological criteria bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon...
traditionally also speak regional romance languages, all from the Langues d'oïl
Langues d'oïl
The langues d'oïl or langues d'oui , in English the Oïl or Oui languages, are a dialect continuum that includes standard French and its closest autochthonous relatives spoken today in the northern half of France, southern Belgium, and the Channel Islands...
group. Wallonia includes almost all of the area where Walloon
Walloon language
Walloon is a Romance language which was spoken as a primary language in large portions of the Walloon Region of Belgium and some villages of Northern France until the middle of the 20th century. It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language...
is spoken, a Picard
Picard language
Picard is a language closely related to French, and as such is one of the larger group of Romance languages. It is spoken in two regions in the far north of France – Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy – and in parts of the Belgian region of Wallonia, the district of Tournai and a part of...
zone corresponding to the major part of the Province of Hainaut, the Gaume
Gaume
Gaume is a region in the far south of Belgium. Situated at a lower altitude than the Ardennes, it is delineated by borders with France, Luxembourg and the Belgian Ardennes. Gaume is the roman part of the Belgian Lorraine region...
(district of Virton
Virton
Virton is the most southerly town in Belgium and the administrative centre of a Walloon municipality and district of the same name, located in the Belgian province of Luxembourg...
) with the Lorrain language
Lorrain language
Lorrain is a language spoken by a minority of people in Lorraine in France and in Gaume in Belgium. It is one of the Langues d'oïl. It is classified as a regional language of France, and has the recognised status of a regional language of Wallonia...
and a Champenois
Champenois
Champenois is a language spoken by a minority of people in Champagne in France and in Wallonia in Belgium. It is one of the langues d'oïl. It is classified as a regional language of France, and has the recognized status of a regional language of Wallonia....
zone. There are also regional Germanic languages, such as the Luxembourgish language
Luxembourgish language
Luxembourgish is a High German language spoken mainly in Luxembourg. About 320,000 people worldwide speak Luxembourgish.-Language family:...
in Arelerland
Arelerland
The Land of Arlon is the traditionally Luxembourgish-speaking part of Belgian Lorraine, but now predominantly French-speaking. Arlon is the main city of this region....
(Land of Arlon). The regional languages of Wallonia are more important than in France, and they have been officially recognized by the government. With the development of education in French, however, these dialects have been in continual decline. There is currently an effort to revive Walloon dialects; some schools offer language courses in Walloon, and Walloon is also spoken in some radio programmes, but this effort remains very limited.
Literature
In Walloon
Literature is written principally in French but also in Walloon and other regional languages, colloquially called Walloon literature. WalloonWalloon language
Walloon is a Romance language which was spoken as a primary language in large portions of the Walloon Region of Belgium and some villages of Northern France until the middle of the 20th century. It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language...
literature (regional language not French) is printed since the 16th century. But it did have its golden age, paradoxically, during the peak of the Flemish immigration to Wallonia
Flemish immigration to Wallonia
Flemish immigration to Wallonia was an important phenomenon in the History of Belgium. Kas Deprez wrote : Flanders was poor and backward in the 19th century. It hardly took part in the first industrial revolution...
in the 19th century: "That period saw an efflorescence of Walloon literature, plays and poems primarily, and the founding of many theaters and periodicals." The New York Public Library
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
possesses a surprisingly large collection of literary works in Walloon, quite possibly the largest outside Belgium, and its holding are representative of the output. Out of nearly a thousand, twenty-six were published before 1880. Thereafter the numbers rise gradually year by year, reaching a peak of sixty-nine in 1903, and then they fall again, down to eleven in 1913. See 'Switching Languages', p. 153. Yves Quairiaux counted 4800 plays for 1860–1914, published or not. In this period plays were almost the only popular show in Wallonia. But this theater remains popular in the present-day Wallonia: Theater is still flourishing, with over 200 non-professional companies playing in the cities and villages of Wallonia for an audience of over 200,000 each year. There are links between French literature and (the very small) Walloon literature. For instance Raymond Queneau
Raymond Queneau
Raymond Queneau was a French poet and novelist and the co-founder of Ouvroir de littérature potentielle .-Biography:Born in Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, Queneau was the only child of Auguste Queneau and Joséphine Mignot...
set Editions Gallimard
Éditions Gallimard
Éditions Gallimard is one of the leading French publishers of books. The Guardian has described it as having "the best backlist in the world". In 2003 it and its subsidiaries published 1418 titles....
the publication of a Walloon Poets' anthology. Ubu roi
Ubu Roi
Ubu Roi is a play by Alfred Jarry, premiered in 1896. It is a precursor of the Theatre of the Absurd and Surrealism. It is the first of three stylised burlesques in which Jarry satirises power, greed, and their evil practices — in particular the propensity of the complacent bourgeois to abuse the...
was translated in Walloon by André Blavier ( an important pataphysician of Verviers
Verviers
Verviers is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. The Verviers municipality includes the old communes of Ensival, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, and Heusy...
, friend of Queneau), for the new and important Puppets theater of Liège of Jacques Ancion, the Al Botroûle theater "at the umbilical cord" in Walloon indicating a desire to return to the source (according to Joan Cross). But Jacques Ancion wanted to develop a regular adult audience. From the 19th century he included the Walloon play Tati l'Pèriquî by E.Remouchamps and the avant-garde Ubu roi
Ubu Roi
Ubu Roi is a play by Alfred Jarry, premiered in 1896. It is a precursor of the Theatre of the Absurd and Surrealism. It is the first of three stylised burlesques in which Jarry satirises power, greed, and their evil practices — in particular the propensity of the complacent bourgeois to abuse the...
by A.Jarry
Alfred Jarry
Alfred Jarry was a French writer born in Laval, Mayenne, France, not far from the border of Brittany; he was of Breton descent on his mother's side....
. For Jean-Marie Klinkenberg, the dialectal culture is no more a sign of attachment to the past but a way to participate to a new synthesis
In French
Jean-Marie KlinkenbergJean-Marie Klinkenberg
Jean-Marie Klinkenberg is a Belgian linguist and semiotician, professor at the State University of Liège, born in Verviers in 1944. Member of the interdisciplinary Groupe µ...
(member of the Groupe µ
Groupe µ
Groupe µ is the collective pseudonym under which a group of Belgian 20th-century semioticians wrote a series of books, presenting an exposition of modern semiotics....
) wrote also that Wallonia (and literature in Wallonia), is also present since the beginning of the history of formation of the French language. In their 'Histoire illustrée des lettres française de Belgique', Charlier and Hanse (editors), La Renaissance du livre, Bruxelles, 1958, published 247 pages (on 655 ), about the "French" literature in the Walloon provinces (or Walloon principalities of the Middle-Age, sometimes also Flemish provinces and principalities), for a period from the 11th to the 18th centuries. Among the works or the authors,the Sequence of Saint Eulalia
Sequence of Saint Eulalia
The Sequence of Saint Eulalia is the earliest surviving piece of French hagiography and one of the earliest extant vernacular writings, dating from around 880...
(9th century), La Vie de Saint Léger (10th century), Jean Froissart
Jean Froissart
Jean Froissart , often referred to in English as John Froissart, was one of the most important chroniclers of medieval France. For centuries, Froissart's Chronicles have been recognized as the chief expression of the chivalric revival of the 14th century Kingdom of England and France...
(14th century in the County of Hainaut
County of Hainaut
The County of Hainaut was a historical region in the Low Countries with its capital at Mons . In English sources it is often given the archaic spelling Hainault....
), Jean d'Outremeuse
Jean d'Outremeuse
Jean d'Outremeuse or Jean des Preis was a writer and historian who wrote two romanticised historical works and a lapidary....
, Jean Lebel Jean Lemaire de Belges
Jean Lemaire de Belges
Jean Lemaire de Belges was a Walloon poet and historian who lived primarily in France.He was born in Hainaut , the godson and possibly a nephew of Jean Molinet, and spent some time with him at Valenciennes, where the elder writer held a kind of academy of poetry. Lemaire in his first poems calls...
(16th century from Bavay
Bavay
Bavay is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It lies 15 m. ESE of Valenciennes by railway.-History:Under the name of Bagacum or Bavacum, the town was the capital of the Nervii and, under the Roman Empire, an important center of roads, the meeting-place of which was marked by a...
), the Prince of Ligne (18th century, Beloeil). There is a Walloon Surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, especially in the Province of Hainaut. Charles Plisnier
Charles Plisnier
Charles Plisnier was a Belgian writer from Wallonia. He was a Communist in his youth and briefly belonged to the Trotskyist movement in the late 1920s....
(1896–1952), born in Mons, won the Prix Goncourt
Prix Goncourt
The Prix Goncourt is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year"...
in 1936, for his novel Mariages and for Faux Passeports (short stories denouncing Stalinism, in the same spirit as Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler CBE was a Hungarian author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria...
). He was the first foreigner to receive this honour. The Walloon Georges Simenon
Georges Simenon
Georges Joseph Christian Simenon was a Belgian writer. A prolific author who published nearly 200 novels and numerous short works, Simenon is best known for the creation of the fictional detective Maigret.-Early life and education:...
is likely the most widely read French-speaking writer in the world, according to the Tribune de Genève
Tribune de Genève
Tribune de Genève is the most prominent regional newspaper of the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland.Tribune de Genève was founded on 1 February 1879 by James T. Bates. The French language daily is published by Edipresse in Geneva...
. More than 500 million of his books have been sold, and they have been translated into 55 languages. There is a link between the Jean Louvet
Jean Louvet (playwright)
Jean Louvet is a Belgian playwright.He was born in Moustier-sur-Sambre, the son of a miner, and lived a working-class childhood. Three years in the army paid for his studies in Romance philology, and he spent time in academia, but turned to the theater to give expression to his left-wing politics...
's work and the social issues in Wallonia
In Picard
PicardPicard language
Picard is a language closely related to French, and as such is one of the larger group of Romance languages. It is spoken in two regions in the far north of France – Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy – and in parts of the Belgian region of Wallonia, the district of Tournai and a part of...
is spoken in the western province of Hainaut. Notable Belgian authors who wrote in Picard include Géo Libbrecht, Paul Mahieu, Paul André, Francis Couvreur and Florian Duc.
Mosan art, painting, architecture
Mosan artMosan art
Mosan art is a regional style of art from the valley of the Meuse in present-day Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. Although the term applies to art from this region from all periods, it generally refers to Romanesque art, with Mosan Romanesque architecture, stone carving, metalwork, enamelling...
is a regional style of Romanesque art
Romanesque art
Romanesque art refers to the art of Western Europe from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic style in the 13th century, or later, depending on region. The preceding period is increasingly known as the Pre-Romanesque...
from the valleys of the Meuse
Meuse River
The Maas or Meuse is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea...
in present-day Wallonia, and the Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
, with manuscript illumination, metalwork, and enamel work from the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. Among them the masterpiece of Renier de Huy
Renier de Huy
Renier de Huy was a 12th century metalworker and sculptor to whom is attributed a major masterpiece of Mosan art, the baptismal font at St Bartholomew's Church, Liège in Liege, Belgium of 1107–18...
and perhaps of the whole Mosan art Baptismal font at St Bartholomew's Church, Liège. The architecture of Roman churches of the Walloon country are also named mosan, exemplified by the Collegiate Church of Saint Gertrude
Collegiate Church of Saint Gertrude
The Collegiate Church of Saint Gertrude is a historical building in Nivelles, Wallonia, Belgium consecrated in 1046 by Wazon, bishop of Liège in the presence of emperor Henry III...
in Nivelles
Nivelles
Nivelles is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. The Nivelles municipality includes the old communes of Baulers, Bornival, Thines, and Monstreux....
, and the churches of Waha
Waha
Waha is a Belgian village located in the Province of Luxembourg in Wallonia. In 1977 the village merged with Aye, Hargimon, Humain, Marche-en-Famenne, Marloie, On, Champlon and Roy to form the municipality of Marche-en-Famenne.- Etymology :...
and Hastière
Hastière
Hastière is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Namur. On 1 January 2006 the municipality had 5,230 inhabitants. The total area is 56.46 km², giving a population density of 93 inhabitants per km²....
, Dinant
Dinant
Dinant is a Walloon city and municipality located on the River Meuse in the Belgian province of Namur, Belgium. The Dinant municipality includes the old communes of Anseremme, Bouvignes-sur-Meuse, Dréhance, Falmagne, Falmignoul, Foy-Notre-Dame, Furfooz, Lisogne, Sorinnes, and Thynes.-Origins to...
. The Ornamental brassware
Ornamental brassware
Ornamental brassware describes brassware that serves an ornamental purpose.A number of locations have a reputation for producing fine ornamental brassware, including Benares and Dinant, Belgium. Brassware has been produced since the fourth century BC when the Egyptians and Chaldeans started...
is also a part of the Mosan art and among these dinandiers Hugo d'Oignies and Nicolas de Verdun.
Jacques du Broeucq
Jacques du Broeucq
Jacques du Broeucq was a sculptor and architect from Southern Netherlands.Jacques du Broeucq is perhaps best known as the teacher of Giambologna in Antwerp....
was a sculptor of the 16th century.
Flemish art was not confined to the boundaries of modern Flanders and several leading artists came from or worked in areas in which langues d'oïl were spoken, from the region of modern Wallonia, e.g. Robert Campin
Robert Campin
Robert Campin , now usually identified as the artist known as the Master of Flémalle, is usually considered the first great master of Early Netherlandish painting...
, Rogier van der Weyden (Rogier de la Pasture) and Jacques Daret
Jacques Daret
Jacques Daret was an Early Netherlandish painter born in Tournai , where he would spend much of his life. Daret spent 15 years as a pupil in the studio of Robert Campin, alongside Rogier or Rogelet de le Pasture , and afterwards...
. Joachim Patinir
Joachim Patinir
Joachim Patinir, also called de Patiner , was a Flemish Northern Renaissance history and landscape painter from the area of modern Wallonia...
Henri Blès
Herri met de Bles
Herri met de Bles was a Flemish Northern Renaissance and Mannerist landscape painter...
are generally called mosan
Mosan art
Mosan art is a regional style of art from the valley of the Meuse in present-day Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. Although the term applies to art from this region from all periods, it generally refers to Romanesque art, with Mosan Romanesque architecture, stone carving, metalwork, enamelling...
painters. Lambert Lombard
Lambert Lombard
Lambert Lombard was a Renaissance painter, architect and theorist for the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. During his career he worked for Jan Gossaert in Middelburg and trained Frans Floris. In 1532 he became court painter and architect in Liège...
(Liège, 1505 – 1566) was a Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
painter, architect and theorist for the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. Gérard de Lairesse
Gerard de Lairesse
Gerard or Gérard de Lairesse was a Dutch Golden Age painter and art theorist.Lairesse was born in Liège. His broad range of talent included music, poetry, and the theatre. He was perhaps the most celebrated Dutch painter in the period following the death of Rembrandt...
, Bertholet Flemalle
Bertholet Flemalle
Bertholet Flemalle, Flemal, or Flamael was a Flemish Baroque painter.-Biography:The son of a glass painter, he was instructed in his art by Henri Trippet and Gerard Douffet successively. He visited Rome in 1638, and was invited by the Duke of Tuscany to Florence and employed in decorating one of...
were also important painters in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.
Gustave Serrurier-Bovy
Gustave Serrurier-Bovy
Gustave Serrurier-Bovy was a Belgian architect and furniture designer. He is credited with creating the Art Nouveau style, coined as a style in Paris by Bing....
(Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
, 1858 - Antwerp, 1910) architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
and furniture
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
designer, credited (along with Paul Hankar
Paul Hankar
Paul Hankar was a Belgian architect and designer who, along with Victor Horta and Henry Van de Velde, is considered one of the principal architects to work in the Art Nouveau style in Brussels at the turn of the twentieth century.-Formative Studies: Hankar was born at Frameries. He began his...
, Victor Horta
Victor Horta
Victor, Baron Horta was a Belgian architect and designer. John Julius Norwich described him as "undoubtedly the key European Art Nouveau architect." Indeed, Horta is one of the most important names in Art Nouveau architecture; the construction of his Hôtel Tassel in Brussels in 1892-3 means that...
and Henry van de Velde
Henry van de Velde
Henry Clemens Van de Velde was a Belgian Flemish painter, architect and interior designer. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar he could be considered one of the main founders and representatives of Art Nouveau in Belgium...
) with creating the Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
style, coined as a style in Paris by Bing. And in Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
also, principally Jean Del Cour
Jean Del Cour
Jean Delcour, or Del Cour , was a Flemish Baroque sculptor from Liège.-Biography:At the age of 15 he became a sculpture pupil in Liege of the monk Arnold Henrard. After this training he traveled to Rome and became a pupil of Gian Lorenzo Bernini. He was also influenced by Ercole Ferrata...
, the sculptor of the Virgin in Vinâve d'Isle, Léon Mignon
Léon Mignon
Léon Mignon was a Belgian sculptor working in a realist idiom, known for his depiction of bulls.Born at Liège, Léon Mignon completed his studies at the Académie royale des Beaux-Arts de Liège in 1871...
the sculptor of Li Tore and Louis Jéhotte
Louis Jéhotte
Louis Jehotte was a prominent Belgian sculptor working in a realist tradition that was inflected, who was responsible for the bronze equestrian monument to Charlemagne erected in the boulevard d'Avroy, Liège, in 1867...
of the statue of Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
.
George Grard
George Grard
George Grard was a Belgian sculptor, known above all for his representations of the female, in the manner of Pierre Renoir and Aristide Maillol, modelled in clay or plaster, and cast in bronze....
(1901 — 1984) was a Walloon sculptor, known above all for his representations of the female, in the manner of Pierre Renoir
Pierre Renoir
Pierre Renoir was a French stage and film actor and served briefly as the director of the Théâtre de l'Athénée in Paris, taking over after the death of Louis Jouvet in 1951....
and Aristide Maillol
Aristide Maillol
Aristide Maillol or Aristides Maillol was a French Catalan sculptor and painter.-Biography:...
, modelled in clay or plaster, and cast in bronze.
During the 19th and 20th centuries many original romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
, expressionist
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
and surrealist
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
Wallon painters emerged, including Félicien Rops
Félicien Rops
Félicien Rops was a Belgian artist, and printmaker in etching and aquatint.-Early life:Rops was born in Namur as the only son to Nicholas Rops and Sophie Maubile. He was educated at the University of Brussels...
, Paul Delvaux
Paul Delvaux
Paul Delvaux was a Belgian painter, associated with Surrealism, famous for his paintings of female nudes.-Biography:...
, Pierre Paulus
Pierre Paulus
Baron Pierre Paulus de Châtelet was a Walloon expressionist painter, most known as the designer of "the bold rooster" adopted on 3 July 1913 by the Walloon Assembly for the flag of Wallonia....
, Fernand Verhaegen
Fernand Verhaegen
Fernand Verhaegen was a Belgian painter and etcher.He was born in Marchienne-au-Pont, near Charleroi in Wallonia. He took courses at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts from 1900 to 1906 and there became friends with Rik Wouters and Edgard Tytgat. After graduation he exhibited his works in Belgium...
, Antoine Wiertz
Antoine Wiertz
Antoine Joseph Wiertz was a Belgian romantic painter and sculptor.-Biography:Born in Dinant from a relatively poor family, he entered the Antwerp art academy in 1820...
, René Magritte
René Magritte
René François Ghislain Magritte[p] was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images...
... The avant-garde CoBrA movement
COBRA (avant-garde movement)
COBRA was a European avant-garde movement active from 1948 to 1951. The name was coined in 1948 by Christian Dotremont from the initials of the members' home cities: Copenhagen , Brussels , Amsterdam .-History:...
appeared in the 1950s
Music
Johannes Brassart
Johannes Brassart was a Burgundian composer of the early Renaissance. Of his output, only sacred vocal music has survived, and it typifies early 15th century practice.- Life :...
, Johannes de Sarto and firstly Johannes Ciconia
Johannes Ciconia
Johannes Ciconia was a late medieval composer and music theorist who worked most of his adult life in Italy, particularly in the service of the Papal Chapels and at the cathedral of Padua....
, the third Master of Ars Nova
Ars nova
Ars nova refers to a musical style which flourished in France and the Burgundian Low Countries in the Late Middle Ages: more particularly, in the period between the preparation of the Roman de Fauvel and the death of the composer Guillaume de Machaut in 1377...
,.
The vocal music
Vocal music
Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music Vocal music is a genre of...
of the so-called Franco-Flemish School
Franco-Flemish School
In music, the Franco-Flemish School or more precisely the Netherlandish School refers, somewhat imprecisely, to the style of polyphonic vocal music composition in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, and to the composers who wrote it...
developed in the southern part of the Low Countries and was an important contribution to Renaissance culture. Robert Wangermée and Philippe Mercier wrote in their encyclopedic book about the Walloon music that Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
, Cambrai
Cambrai
Cambrai is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.Cambrai is the seat of an archdiocese whose jurisdiction was immense during the Middle Ages. The territory of the Bishopric of Cambrai, roughly coinciding with the shire of Brabant, included...
and Hainaut played a leading part in the so-called Franco-Flemish School
Among them were Orlande de Lassus
Orlande de Lassus
Orlande de Lassus was a Franco-Flemish composer of the late Renaissance...
, Gilles Binchois
Gilles Binchois
Gilles de Binche , also known as Gilles de Bins , was a Franco-Flemish composer, one of the earliest members of the Burgundian School, and one of the three most famous composers of the early 15th century...
, Guillaume Dufay
Guillaume Dufay
Guillaume Dufay was a Franco-Flemish composer of the early Renaissance. As the central figure in the Burgundian School, he was the most famous and influential composer in Europe in the mid-15th century.-Early life:From the evidence of his will, he was probably born in Beersel, in the vicinity of...
In the 19th and 20th centuries, there was an emergence of major violinists, such as Henri Vieuxtemps
Henri Vieuxtemps
Henri François Joseph Vieuxtemps was a Belgian composer and violinist. He occupies an important place in the history of the violin as a prominent exponent of the Franco-Belgian violin school during the mid-19th century....
, Eugène Ysaÿe
Eugène Ysaÿe
Eugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor born in Liège. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tzar"...
(author of the unique opera in Walloon
Walloon language
Walloon is a Romance language which was spoken as a primary language in large portions of the Walloon Region of Belgium and some villages of Northern France until the middle of the 20th century. It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language...
during the 20th century Piére li houyeû - Pierre the miner - based on a real incident which occurred in 1877 during a miners' strike in the Liège region), and Arthur Grumiaux
Arthur Grumiaux
Arthur Grumiaux was a Belgian violinist who was also proficient in piano.-Youth:Grumiaux was born in Villers-Perwin, Belgium to a working-class family, and it was his grandfather who urged him to begin music studies at the age of only 4...
, while Adolphe Sax
Adolphe Sax
Antoine-Joseph "Adolphe" Sax was a Belgian musical instrument designer and musician who played the flute and clarinet, and is best known for having invented the saxophone.-Biography:...
(born in Dinant
Dinant
Dinant is a Walloon city and municipality located on the River Meuse in the Belgian province of Namur, Belgium. The Dinant municipality includes the old communes of Anseremme, Bouvignes-sur-Meuse, Dréhance, Falmagne, Falmignoul, Foy-Notre-Dame, Furfooz, Lisogne, Sorinnes, and Thynes.-Origins to...
) invented the saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
in 1846. The composer César Franck
César Franck
César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....
was born in Liège in 1822, Guillaume Lekeu
Guillaume Lekeu
Guillaume Lekeu was a Belgian composer of classical music.- Life :Lekeu, who was born in Verviers, Belgium, took his first lessons at the conservatoire in that city. In 1879, his parents moved to Poitiers, France. There, he finished school while he continued his music studies autodidactically...
in Verviers
Verviers
Verviers is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. The Verviers municipality includes the old communes of Ensival, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, and Heusy...
. More recently, André Souris
André Souris
André Souris was a Belgian composer, conductor, musicologist, and writer associated with the surrealist movement.-Biography:...
(1899–1970) was associated with Surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
. Zap Mama
Zap Mama
Zap Mama is a Belgian musical group founded and led by Marie Daulne. Daulne says her mission is to be a bridge between the European and the African and bring the two cultures together with her music...
is a more international group
Henri Pousseur
Henri Pousseur
Henri Pousseur was a Belgian composer.-Biography:Pousseur studied at the Academies of Music in Liège and in Brussels from 1947 to 1953. He was closely associated with Pierre Froidebise and André Souris...
is generally regarded as a member of the Darmstadt School
Darmstadt School
Darmstadt School refers to a loose group of compositional styles created by composers who attended the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music from the early 1950s to the early 1960s.-History:...
in the 1950s. Pousseur's music employs serialism
Serialism
In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...
, mobile forms, and aleatory, often mediating between or among seemingly irreconcilable styles, such as those of Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
and Webern
Anton Webern
Anton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of...
(Votre Faust), or Pousseur's own serial style and the protest song "We shall overcome" (Couleurs croisées). He was strongly linked to the social strikes in Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
during the 1960s. He worked also with the French writer Michel Butor
Michel Butor
-Life and work:Michel Marie François Butor was born in Mons-en-Barœul. He studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, graduating in 1947. He has taught in Egypt, Manchester, Salonika, the United States, and Geneva...
Cinema
Walloon films are often characterized by social realismSocial realism
Social Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts social and racial injustice, economic hardship, through unvarnished pictures of life's struggles; often depicting working class activities as heroic...
. It is perhaps the reason why the documentary Misère au Borinage
Misère au Borinage
Misère au Borinage is a 1933 Belgian documentary film directed by Henri Storck and Joris Ivens.The film opens with these words: Crisis in the Capitalist World. Factories are closed down, abandoned...
, and especially its co-director Henri Storck
Henri Storck
Henri Storck was a Belgian author, film-maker and documentarist.In 1933, he directed, with Joris Ivens, Misère au Borinage, a film about the miners in the Borinage area. In 1938, with Andre Thirifays and Pierre Vermeylen, he founded the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique...
, is considered by Robert Stallaerts as the father of the Walloon cinema. He wrote: "Although a Fleming, he can be called the father of the Walloon cinema.". For F.André between Misère au Borinage and the films like those of the Dardenne brothers
Dardenne brothers
Brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne are a Belgian filmmaking duo...
(since 1979), there is Déjà s'envole la fleur maigre (1960) (also shot in the Borinage
Borinage
The Borinage is an area in the Walloon province of Hainaut. The provincial capital Mons is located in the east of the Borinage. In French the inhabitants are called Borains...
), a film regarded as a point of reference in the history of the cinema. Like those of the Dardenne brothers
Dardenne brothers
Brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne are a Belgian filmmaking duo...
, Thierry Michel, Jean-Jacques Andrien
Jean-Jacques Andrien
Jean-Jacques Andrien is a Belgian film director. Le Monde deem his film Le Grand Paysage d'Alexis Droeven , to be the first great Film of a Walloon cinema This film addresses two problems; the first is that of Belgium's region, site of a bitter conflict between Flemish and Walloon inhabitants,...
, Benoît Mariage
Benoît Mariage
Benoît Mariage is a Belgian film director.-External links:...
, or, e.g. the social documentaries of Patric Jean, the director of Les enfants du Borinage writing his film as a letter to Henri Storck. On the other hand, films such as Thierry Zéno
Thierry Zéno
Thierry Zéno is a Belgian author-filmmaker. His films include the controversial Vase de Noces , and a documentary ¡Ya basta! Le cri des sans-visage on the Zapatista rebels of Chiapas, Mexico,...
's Vase de noces
Vase de Noces
Vase de Noces is a Belgian arthouse film directed by Thierry Zéno and stars Dominique Garny.The film deals openly, and sometimes graphically, with bestiality, and is informally known as The Pig Fucking Movie...
(1974), Mireille in the life of the others by Jean-Marie Buchet
Jean-Marie Buchet
Jean-Marie Buchet is a Belgian author and filmmaker.-Early life & education:At the age of twelve, Buchet said to a school-fellow, after having failed at an examination: "Later I will make cinema!"...
(1979), C'est arrivé près de chez vous (English title: Man bites dog
Man Bites Dog (film)
Man Bites Dog is a darkly comedic crime Belgian mockumentary starring Benoît Poelvoorde. In the film, a crew of filmmakers follow a serial killer, recording his crimes for a documentary they are producing...
) by Rémy Belvaux
Rémy Belvaux
Rémy Nicolas Lucien Belvaux was a Belgian actor, director, producer and screenwriter...
and André Bonzel (1992) and the works of Noël Godin
Noël Godin
Noël Godin is a Belgian writer, critic, actor and notorious cream pie flinger or entarteur. Godin gained global attention in 1998 when his group ambushed Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in Brussels, pelting the software magnate with cream pies...
and Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (author-filmmaker)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a Belgian absurdist film director. He was born in Souvret after the Second World War. He defends "popular" cinema, filming with very small budgets , and using unknown or non-professional actors...
are influenced by surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
, absurdism
Absurdism
In philosophy, "The Absurd" refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek value and meaning in life and the human inability to find any...
and black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
. The films of the Dardenne brothers
Dardenne brothers
Brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne are a Belgian filmmaking duo...
are also inspired by the Bible and Le Fils for instance is regarded as one of the most spiritually significant films.
Folklore
Ducasse de Mons
The Ducasse de Mons or Doudou is a popular festival that happens every year during the Trinity Sunday in the town of Mons in Belgium...
(Walloon French for Kermesse), is one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
The Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity was made by the Director-General of UNESCO starting in 2001 to raise awareness on intangible cultural heritage and encourage local communities to protect them and the local people who sustain these forms of cultural...
. It comprises two important parts: the procession, the descent and the uprising of the Waltrude
Waltrude
Saint Waltrude is the patron saint of Mons, Belgium, where she is known in French as Sainte Waudru, and of Herentals, Belgium, where she is known in Dutch as Sint-Waldetrudis or -Waltrudis. Both cities boast a large medieval church that bears her name.Married to the Count of Hainault, she raised...
's Shrine
Shrine
A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated....
, and the combat of Saint George
Saint George
Saint George was, according to tradition, a Roman soldier from Syria Palaestina and a priest in the Guard of Diocletian, who is venerated as a Christian martyr. In hagiography Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Catholic , Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and the Oriental Orthodox...
. The combat (after the procession), is played on the Trinity Sunday between 12.30 pm and 1.00 pm on on the Mons
Mons
Mons is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, of which it is the capital. The Mons municipality includes the old communes of Cuesmes, Flénu, Ghlin, Hyon, Nimy, Obourg, Baudour , Jemappes, Ciply, Harmignies, Harveng, Havré, Maisières, Mesvin, Nouvelles,...
'scentral square. It represents the fight between Saint George (the good) and the dragon (the evil). The dragon is displaced with the help of the white men (fr:Hommes blancs). The dragon fights Saint George by giving Tail
Tail
The tail is the section at the rear end of an animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso. It is the part of the body that corresponds roughly to the sacrum and coccyx in mammals, reptiles, and birds...
attacks. Saint George on his horse turns clockwise. And the dragon turns in the other direction. Saint George finally kills the dragon.
The Gilles
Gilles
The Gilles are the oldest and principal participants in the Carnival of Binche in Belgium. Other cities, such as Nivelles have a tradition of Gilles at carnival, but the Carnival of Binche is by far the most famous....
of Binche
Binche
Binche is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On January 1, 2006 Binche had a total population of 32,409. The total area is 60.66 km² which gives a population density of 534 inhabitants per km²...
(only of this town) and the giants' procession in Ath
Ath
Ath is a Belgian municipality located in the Walloon province of Hainaut. The Ath municipality includes the old communes of Lanquesaint, Irchonwelz, Ormeignies, Bouvignies, Ostiches, Rebaix, Maffle, Arbre, Houtaing, Ligne, Mainvault, Moulbaix, Villers-Notre-Dame, Villers-Saint-Amand, Ghislenghien...
are also one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
The Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity was made by the Director-General of UNESCO starting in 2001 to raise awareness on intangible cultural heritage and encourage local communities to protect them and the local people who sustain these forms of cultural...
.
Cuisine
Wallonia is famous for CougnouCougnou
The cougnou or bread of Jesus is a bread baked during Christmas time and is typical of the southern Low Countries.It has various names according to the location:* Coquille in Romance Flanders ,...
(throughout whole Wallonia), the Waffles of Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
, the Herve cheese
Herve cheese
Herve is an aged cheese made from unpasteurized cow's milk. It is traditionally aged in humid caves.Herve comes from the Belgian town of the same name. It is a Limburger-like cheese: pungent and soft. It is sometimes flavored with herbs. Herve has a pale yellow interior with a glossy reddish-brown...
and the Apple butter
Apple butter
Apple butter is a highly concentrated form of apple sauce, produced by long, slow cooking of apples with cider or water to a point where the sugar in the apples caramelizes, turning the apple butter a deep brown. The concentration of sugar gives apple butter a much longer shelf life as a preserve...
named Sirop de Liège which people put on this cheese, three kinds of Trappist beer
Trappist beer
A Trappist beer is a beer brewed by or under control of Trappist monks. There are a total of 174 Trappist monasteries worldwide ; only seven produce Trappist beer and are authorized to label their beers with the Authentic Trappist Product logo that indicates a compliance to the various rules of...
(from Chimay
Chimay
Chimay a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On January 1, 2006, Chimay had a total population of 9,774. The total area is 197.10 km² which gives a population density of 50 inhabitants per km²...
, Orval and Rochefort
Rochefort, Belgium
Rochefort is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Namur close to the Ardennes. On January 1, 2006 Rochefort had a total population of 12,038. The total area is 165.27 km² which gives a population density of 73 inhabitants per km²...
), the Jenever
Jenever
Jenever , is the juniper-flavored and strongly alcoholic traditional liquor of the Netherlands and Belgium, from which gin evolved...
named Peket, May wine
May wine
May wine, also known as Maitrank, Maiwein, Maibowle and Waldmeisterbowle, is the name of a German beverage that uses aromatized wine as a base . May wine is served in the spring, traditionally on the May Day holiday...
named Maitrank, the Garden strawberry
Garden Strawberry
The garden strawberry, Fragaria × ananassa, is a hybrid species that is cultivated worldwide for its fruit, the strawberry. The fruit is widely appreciated for its characteristic aroma, bright red color, juicy texture, and sweetness...
of Wépion
Wépion
Located 8 km the south of Namur, Wépion is the Belgian capital of the strawberry.The strawberry has been cultivated there for more than 150 years because Wépion benefits from a micro-climate, sun-exposed plantations on west sloping ground and has a perfect ground for this type of culture.It...
. A great speciality of Dinant
Dinant
Dinant is a Walloon city and municipality located on the River Meuse in the Belgian province of Namur, Belgium. The Dinant municipality includes the old communes of Anseremme, Bouvignes-sur-Meuse, Dréhance, Falmagne, Falmignoul, Foy-Notre-Dame, Furfooz, Lisogne, Sorinnes, and Thynes.-Origins to...
is the Flamiche
Flamiche
Flamiche is a specialty of Picardy in the north of France. It is a sort of pie stuffed with cooked leek. The pastry is made of a brioche type dough.It resembles a quiche. It is also a speciality of Dinant and of Walloon cuisine, a tart made from a base of low-fat cheese butter and eggs, is eaten...
: If you come to Dinant, you will not find these delicious cheese tarts in the windows of the shops. The reason for this is that this speciality must be eaten hot, which means, straight from the oven. As one restaurateur Dinantais said so well in a book about Walloon gastronomy "it is the client who waits for the flamiche, as the flamiche does not wait for the client. There are also the Ardennes
Ardennes
The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and ridges formed within the Givetian Ardennes mountain range, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France , and geologically into the Eifel...
Ham
Ham
Ham is a cut of meat from the thigh of the hind leg of certain animals, especiallypigs. Nearly all hams sold today are fully cooked or cured.-Etymology:...
, the "Tarte al djote" (from Nivelles
Nivelles
Nivelles is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. The Nivelles municipality includes the old communes of Baulers, Bornival, Thines, and Monstreux....
) tart made with beet leaves and cheese for dessert. The 1957 Michelin Guide
Michelin Guide
The Michelin Guide is a series of annual guide books published by Michelin for over a dozen countries. The term normally refers to the Michelin Red Guide, the oldest and best-known European hotel and restaurant guide, which awards the Michelin stars...
noted that "regional food has put up heroïc resistance and the Walloon provinces and Flemish provinces are proud of their specialities."
Airports
The two largest cities in Wallonia each have an airport. The Brussels South Charleroi Airport has become an important passenger airport, especially with low fares companies such as RyanairRyanair
Ryanair is an Irish low-cost airline. Its head office is at Dublin Airport and its primary operational bases at Dublin Airport and London Stansted Airport....
or Wizzair. It serves as a low-cost alternative to Brussels Airport
Brussels Airport
Brussels Airport is an international airport northeast of Brussels, Belgium. The airport is partially in Zaventem and partially in the Diegem area of Machelen, both located in the Flemish Region of Belgium.Brussels Airport currently consists of 54 contact gates, and a total of 109 gates...
, and it saw 3 million passengers in 2008, almost 4 milion in 2009. The Liège Airport
Liège Airport
Liège Airport , also called Liège-Bierset, is an important cargo airport in Belgium. It was at the end of 2009 the 8th biggest cargo airport in Europe...
is specialized in freight, although it also operates tourist-oriented charter flights. Today, Liège is the 8th airport for European freight and aims to reach the 5th rank in the next decade.
Railways, motorways, buses
TECTEC (transport)
Société Régionale Wallonne du Transport , is responsible for the supervision, strategic planning and marketing of a group of five regional public transport companies branded as TEC or "Transport En Commun" in Wallonia, Belgium. It is primarily a bus operator, but also operates the Charleroi tram...
is the single public transit authority for all of Wallonia, operating buses and trams. Charleroi
Charleroi
Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as...
is the sole Walloon city to have a metro system
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
, the Charleroi Pre-metro
Charleroi Pre-metro
The Charleroi Metro is a express tram network in Belgium, consisting of a horseshoe-shaped line around central Charleroi and two branches towards the suburbs of Gilly and Anderlues. It was built between 1976 and 1996 with 26 stations, of which 20 are in service as of 1996, and 6 regular tram...
.
Wallonia has an extensive and well-developed rail network, served by the Belgian National Railway Company, SNCB.
Wallonia's numerous motorways fall within the scope of the TransEuropean Transport network programme (TEN-T). This priority programme run by the European Union provides more than 70,000 km of transport infrastructure, including motorways, express rail lines and roadways, and has been developed to carry substantial volumes of traffic.
Waterways
With traffic of over 20 million tonnes and 26 kilometres of quays, the autonomous port of Liège (PAL) is the third largest inland port in Europe. It carries out the management of 31 ports along the Meuse and the Albert CanalAlbert Canal
The Albert Canal is a canal located in northeastern Belgium, named after King Albert I of Belgium. It connects the major cities Antwerp and Liège and the Meuse and Scheldt rivers. It has a depth of , a free height of and a total length of...
. It is accessible to sea and river transporters weighing up to 2,500 tonnes, and to pushed two-barge convoys (4,500 tonnes, soon to be raised to 9,000 tonnes). Even if Wallonia does not have direct access to the sea, it is very well connected to the major ports thanks to an extensive network of navigable waterways that pervades Belgium, and it has effective river connections to Antwerp, Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
and Dunkirk.
On the west side of Wallonia, in the Province of Hainaut, the Strépy-Thieu boat lift
Strépy-Thieu boat lift
The Strépy-Thieu boat lift lies on a branch of the Canal du Centre in the municipality of Le Rœulx, Hainaut, Belgium. With a height difference of between the upstream and downstream reaches, it is the tallest boat lift in the world, and will remain so until the Three Gorges dam boat lift in...
, permits river traffic of up to the new 1350-tonne standard to pass between the waterways of the Meuse and Scheldt
Scheldt
The Scheldt is a 350 km long river in northern France, western Belgium and the southwestern part of the Netherlands...
rivers. Completed in 2002 at an estimated cost of €
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
160 million (then 6.4 billion Belgian franc
Belgian franc
The franc was the currency of Belgium until 2002 when the euro was introduced into circulation. It was subdivided into centimes , 100 centiem or Centime .-History:...
s) the lift has increased river traffic from 256 kT in 2001 to 2,295 kT in 2006.
See also
- Walloon languageWalloon languageWalloon is a Romance language which was spoken as a primary language in large portions of the Walloon Region of Belgium and some villages of Northern France until the middle of the 20th century. It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language...
- Science and technology in WalloniaScience and technology in WalloniaScience and technology in Wallonia, the southern region of Belgium , is well developed with the presence of several universities and research institutes.-Technology institutes:Wallonia is home to several science and technology organizations....
- The Walloon peopleWalloonsWalloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive community within Belgium, important historical and anthropological criteria bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon...
- Walloon MovementWalloon MovementThe Walloon Movement is an umbrella term for all Belgian political movements that either assert the existence of a Walloon identity or defend French culture and language within Belgium. The movement began as a defence of the primacy of French but later gained political and socio-economic objectives...
- FlandersFlandersFlanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
- BrusselsBrusselsBrussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
- Belgian general strikesBelgian general strikesThe Belgian general strikes were a peculiar phenomenon of the social, economical and political life in Belgium due to huge concentrations of workers in the Belgian Cities as Ghent, Antwerp, mainly in Wallonia, in Charleroi and Liège but also in other places in the Walloon Sillon industriel, e.g....
- History of coal miningHistory of coal miningDue to its abundance, coal has been mined in various parts of the world throughout history and continues to be an important economic activity today. Compared to wood fuels, coal yields a higher amount of energy per mass and could be obtained in areas where wood is not readily available...
- Industrial RevolutionIndustrial RevolutionThe Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
- Manifesto for Walloon cultureManifesto for Walloon cultureThe Manifesto for Walloon Culture , was published in Liège on 15 September 1983 and signed ‘by seventy-five key figures in artistic, journalistic and university circles’ of Wallonia....
External links
- Logistics in Wallonia
- Tourism in Wallonia
- Musique en Wallonie
- Culture and art
- Walloon composers (French)
- Belgium Rift: Flanders vs. Wallonia - slideshow by Life magazine