Visé Explained

Visé
Namenl:Wezet
Map:Visé Liège Belgium Map.svg
Map-Legend:Location of Visé in Liège province
Arms:Armoiries Visé.svg
Flag:Vise flag 3.svg
Arrondissement:Liège
Nis:62108
Mayor:Viviane Dessart (MR)
Majority:MR - PS
Parties:MR
PS
cdH
Ecolo
Seats:25
11
10
3
1
Sections-Name:Visé, Lanaye, Lixhe, Richelle, Argenteau, Cheratte
Sections-Postal:4600
4600
4600
4600
4601
4602
Postal-Codes:4600-4602
Telephone-Area:04
Web:www.vise.be
Coordinates:50.7333°N 47°W

Visé (in French pronounced as /vize/; Dutch; Flemish: Wezet, in Dutch; Flemish pronounced as /ˈʋeːzɛt/; Walloon: Vizé) is a city and municipality of Wallonia, located on the river Meuse in the province of Liège, Belgium.

The municipality consists of the following districts: Argenteau, Cheratte, Lanaye, Lixhe, Richelle, and Visé.

In the north-east (on the eastern bank of the Meuse) the area of the municipality extends up to the village of Moelingen in the Limburgian municipality of Voeren, while in the north-west (on the western bank of the Meuse) it extends up to the border between Belgium and the Netherlands (on the other side of which the Dutch municipality of Maastricht is situated).

The city of Visé is located in a distance of some 20 km (12,4 miles) north eastern of Belgian Liège city and of some 15 km (9,3 miles) southern of the most southern Dutch city of Maastricht.

In addition to the Meuse, the Albert Canal also passes through this town.

History

The Germans entered Belgium on 4 August 1914, and entered Visé that day as part of the opening movements of the Battle of Liège. A small group of Belgian gendarmes opposed the advancing Germans and two of their number, Auguste Bouko and Jean-Pierre Thill, were killed in the action becoming the first Belgian casualties of World War I.[1] On 7 August, in the Lixhe section of the town, the German 90th Infantry Regiment killed eleven civilians and destroyed eleven houses. By 17 August 1914, forty-two civilians were killed, and 586 out of the village's 840 houses had been destroyed.[2]

The Lixhe part of the town was also the site of one of Belgium's ninety eastern-frontier advanced-warning posts (postes d'alerte de la frontière est), aimed at preventing a German invasion in 1939 – its number was "PA 0". The coal mine of Hasard de Cheratte was dug in Cheratte and exploited between 1850 and 1977.

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Les gendarmes Auguste Bouko et Jean-Pierre Thill, premiers héros belges de 1914. Marc. Poelmans. Arquebusiers . 18 April 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180830142309/http://www.arquebusiers.be/1914-bouko-thil.htm. 30 August 2018. live.
  2. Book: Tixhon . Axel . Villes martyres . 2014 . Presses Universitaires de Namur . Namur, Belgium . 978-2-87037-848-9 . 64.