The story of Liège Cathedral

Above the portal, read the Latin words once carved on the city seal: Sancta Legia Ecclesiae Romanae Filia, "Holy Liège, daughter of the Roman church." Yet this church was not always a cathedral.

For centuries it was one of the seven collegiate churches of Liège. Its story begins in the 10th century, when Bishop Eraclus, returning from the funeral of Bruno the Great in Cologne, decided to build a church in honour of Paul the Apostle and founded a college of twenty canons.

He died when the walls had risen only to the windows, and his successor Notger completed the building and consecrated it on 7 May 972. The choir, transept and naves you see date from the 13th century, while the pentagonal apse was added in the 14th century in the Rayonnant style. Then came the French Revolution, and the ancient cathedral of Saint Lambert was destroyed in 1795. St. Paul's was raised in rank to replace it, and today it is the seat of the Diocese of Liège.