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336 Route 28. VERVIERS. From Liege
seated ina narrow valley watered by the Vesdre and shut in by y
mountains. In the Vl cent. it formed part of the territory of to
a Franchimont given by King Zwentibold to the Church of Liege. .s
ye | It rose to the rank of a town in 1634. Its rapid increase in size 95
nel and population of late years is chiefly owing to its being the prin- -o
ae cipal seat of woollen manufactures in Belgium. There are in the 91
Ht town and its immediate neighbourhood about 60 factories, the 91
principal of which are those of M. E. Simonis, MM. F. Biolley y:
and Sons, and G. Dubois and C9; they employ about 40,000 hands el
and ‘are said to produce second-rate fabrics as good as those of to
England and France at a considerably less cost. The value of to
goods manufactured annually is about one million sterling, the 9:
markets for which are the interior of the country, Switzerland, <f
Italy and America : the Belgian army is clothed from the looms er
of this town. The waters ofthe Vesdre are said to possess proper-.—
ties peculiarly well adapted to dyeing. The principal buildings ex
are the Hotel de Ville, erected in 1774 by B. Renoz of Liege with Wl
a facade of Ionic and rustic orders; the Palais de Justice, ,9
with a facade of blue stone in renaissance style, designed by Du- -\
mont, 1852, with a cellular prison behind it; a 3 aisled b:
church, ded to S. Macarius, by Cremer of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1834; ::
the Hopital de Baviére, founded in 1737, and a Theatre:
with a peristyle supported by Ionic columns. The town is ren-=c
dered unhealthy by constant mists.
Caution: Travellers proceeding to Aix-la-Chapelle or Cologne 9:
must book all their luggage; any packages, even if small, found b:
in the carriages, are seized and forwarded by the next express 2¢
train at the owner’s expense.
A good view of Verviers is obtained from the Rly. after the 9:
first tunnel has been passed through on the road towards Ger- -1
| many; the country on either side of the line presents an almost $e
uninterrupted succession of ¢loth-factories alternating with neat dx
country-houses and gardens. Soon another tunnel is traversed, .f
and then the line, after having been carried along an embank- =i
ment nearly 100 ft. high, enters a mountain-gorge, the scenery of itc
‘which is very grand; after passing through 3 more tunnels, the 9:
aa line re-enters the valley of the Vesdre, over which -it is carried |b:
id upon a viaduct of 21 arches, 65 4/2 ft. high and 886 ft. long.
ee 8 kil. Doruat-Lureurc. Passengers are sometimes made to 0:
alight here in order that the carriages may he searched.
Do.uai, on the banks of the Vesdre, formerly a suburb of Lim- 1
burg, is now the town; it possesses several cloth-factories.
A | LimpurG, picturesquely seated on an eminence to the rt., pre- -¢
bas | serves of its past splendour only the ruins of the anct. castle of Ic
its dukes built in 1064 by Waleram I.. Once the capital of the o: |