Inter-Allied Memorial

Guide : 75 metres above the Cointe park, the summit platform of the Inter-Allied Memorial opens a rare view over Liège. In the distance, Calatrava's curved glass roof at Liège-Guillemins traces a white line along the tracks. A memorial looks at the city: it is never by accident. What strikes you first, the altitude or what the city has to show?

Guide : You turn around, and the hill changes face. The great green dome at the centre of the view is the Sacred Heart Basilica, designed by the same Joseph Smolderen as the Memorial. The pair is no accident: a civic building and a religious building conceived together, wanted as a shared silhouette. What do you look at first, the dome or the district it overlooks?

Guide : At dusk, the same platform changes its story. The Sacred Heart dome stays as a silhouette, but now it is the city that speaks, through its lights: the great avenues, the quays and the Guillemins glass roof appear within the mass. Night does not show less, it shows differently. What do we look for in a city when we watch it after daylight?

Guide : Beneath the hollow 75-metre tower, the crypt gathers three Allied countries who wanted a solemn tribute to Belgium. At the centre, the Romanian sarcophagus "To the Heroes". On the left, the French allegory carrying the words of Poincaré and Albert I. On the right, the Spanish plaque for humanitarian aid. Look up: the verticality of the tower opens above you. What do you look at first, the floor, the stone, or that void rising overhead?

Guide : Above the crypt, an octagonal oculus framed by a bronze balustrade opens the tower's "chimney". Looking down: the crypt and its Allied monuments. Looking up: the verticality of the hollow shaft to the summit. Smolderen wanted a memorial to be crossed from bottom to top, through the void rather than through fullness. What strikes you first, the gaze going down or the verticality rising up?

Guide : Eight white pylons frame the Memorial's outdoor esplanade: this is the "Hall of Pylons". Five Allied countries placed their monument here: the Italian bronze infantryman (1936), the 114 Greek helmets stacked in a pyramid (1988), the British wall with its poppy (1994), the Polish steles (1996) and the Russian composition (2000). Precious detail: this panorama predates January 2021, when the Greek monument was dismantled and stolen. Which country do you look for first?