La Louvière
La Louvière | ||
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State : | Belgium | |
Region : | Wallonia | |
Province : | Hainaut | |
District : | La Louvière | |
Coordinates : | 50 ° 29 ′ N , 4 ° 11 ′ E | |
Area : | 64.16 km² | |
Residents: | 80,757 (Jan. 1, 2019) | |
Population density: | 1,259 inhabitants per km² | |
Post Code: | 7100 | |
Prefix: | 064 | |
Mayor: | Jacques Gobert | |
Local government address : |
Place communale 1 7100 La Louvière |
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Website: | www.lalouviere.be |
La Louvière ( Walloon El Lovire ) is a city in the Belgian province of Hainaut in the Francophone region of Wallonia .
geography
It is the eleventh largest city in Belgium and the fifth largest in Wallonia. It is on the Haine River .
The municipality includes the towns of Haine-Saint-Paul, Haine-Saint-Pierre, Saint-Vaast, Trivières, Boussoit, Houdeng-Aimeries, Houdeng-Goegnies, Maurage, Strépy-Bracquegnies and Besonrieux. The present municipality was formed in 1977 by the merger of these above mentioned places with the place La Louvière.
history
In the Middle Ages the place belonged to the lordship of Saint-Vaast . Coal has been mined here since 1390. In 1869, La Louvière became an independent city.
In the 1950s, the Belgian mining industry fell into a crisis; the price of his coal could not keep up with that of the other five members of the coal and steel union .
economy
Today's suburb Haine-Saint-Pierre housed a foundry from 1838 , which developed into a renowned locomotive factory by 1900; the Belgian state railway SNCB obtained a large part of its heavy steam locomotives from Haine-Saint-Pierre. Of greater economic importance were the boat lifts, which enabled a connection between the Mons region and the North Sea via the Canal du Center in the heyday of coal mining . Today this canal is only of touristic importance (see section Sights). In 2002 the ship lifts were replaced by a new, large lifting system, an eye-catcher in this region that can be seen from afar.
Attractions
In 1998, UNESCO added four old boat lifts on the Canal du Center to the list of World Cultural and Natural Heritage of Humanity .
The Écomusée Blois-du-Luc on a former mining site (since 1685) is a focal point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH).
Sports
The local football club RAA La Louvière played in the first Belgian football league from 2000 to 2006 and was the winner of the Belgian National Cup in 2003 .
Town twinning
La Louvière maintains city partnerships with
- Saint-Maur-des-Fossés in Île-de-France , France
- Foligno in Umbria , Italy
- Cordoba in Andalusia , Spain
- Bojnice in Slovakia
- Kalisz in Poland
- Aragona in Italy
sons and daughters of the town
- Éric Adam (* 1966), comic book author
- Vincenzo "Enzo" Scifo (* 1966), football player
- Bruno Laurent (* 1975), chess player
- Nicolas De Crem (* 1990), racing car driver
- Eden Hazard (born 1991), football player
- Thorgan Hazard (born 1993), football player
Single receipts
- ↑ BE-A0524_705942_708932_FRE; Inventaire des archives du Contrôle du Cadastre de La Louvière / P.-J. Niebes. State Archives in Belgium, accessed on June 23, 2020 (French).
- ↑ Der Spiegel 9/1959: The end of the closed season
- ^ Ecomusée du Bois-du-Luc
Web links
- UNESCO website (English)