The Hôtel d'Ansembourg is a former Baroque

hôtel particulier An ''hôtel particulier'' () is a grand townhouse, comparable to the Townhouse (Great Britain), British townhouse or mansion. Whereas an ordinary ''maison'' (house) was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side an ...

Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...

, Belgium, located between Féronstrée and quai de Maestricht.

History

It was built between 1738 and 1741 as Hôtel Willems to designs by

Johann Joseph Couven Johann Joseph Couven (10 November 1701 – 12 September 1763) was a German Baroque architect. He was born in Aachen, where he also died. His legacy includes several religious and secular buildings in Germany (mostly in or near Aachen, e.g. Bu ...

, though the decoration took a few more years to complete. The foundry formerly on the site (part of the collégiale Saint-Barthélemy) was demolished to make way for it. It was built by and for the rich

Eupen Eupen (, ; ; formerly ) is the capital of German-speaking Community of Belgium and is a city and municipality in the Belgian province of Liège, from the German border (Aachen), from the Dutch border (Maastricht) and from the "High Fens" na ...

ois banker and merchant Michel Willems and his family. He mainly made his fortune as a merchant in 'Cordoba leather' (leather gilded at Malines) in

Verviers Verviers (; wa, Vervî) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Ensival, Heusy, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, and Verviers. It is also the ...

, then as a banker, particularly to the prince-bishops of Liège. In 1780 Willem's son Nicolas retired to Amstenrade Castle, which he largely rebuilt, and eight years later he died without issue, leaving the hôtel and his other properties to the daughter of his sister Marie-Anne-Victoire de Hayme de Bomal1, wife of count Joseph-Romain de Marchant d'Ansembourg, nephew of François-Charles de Velbruck, prince-bishop. This meant the building was rechristened the Hôtel d'Ansembourg. Damaged in 1794 following the

Liège Revolution The Liège Revolution, sometimes known as the Happy Revolution (french: Heureuse Révolution; wa, Binamêye revolucion), against the reigning prince-bishop of Liège, started on 18 August 1789 and lasted until the destruction of the Republic ...

, the building was seized and sold off to another family. The city council bought it in March 1903 and it was restored by Joseph Lousberg before being opened to the public as the Ansembourg Museum on 10 September 1905.

Sources

* Christine Renardy, Liège et l'Exposition universelle de 1905, La Renaissance du livre, 2005, 318 p. () category:Buildings and structures in Liège category:Baroque architecture in Belgium category:1740s architecture {{Belgium-geo-stub