Passage Lemonnier

The Passage of Lemonnier is a covered passage in the centre of Liège in Belgium, which shelters businesses of all types. It connects the Vinâve d'Île to the rue de l'Université and is crossed, in the centre, by the street Lulay des Fèbvres. Built between 1836 and 1838 by the architects Louis-Désiré Lemonnier and Henri-Victor Beaulieu, the Passage Lemonnier, whose name was drawn by lot between the two contractors, is the oldest covered commercial passage in Belgium; He preceded by eight years the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert of the architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar, inaugurated in Brussels in 1847.

History

It was doubtless during the year 1835 that the idea of ​​creating in Liège a covered passage similar to those existing in Paris germinated in the minds of several inhabitants of the new Rue de l'Université: Louis -Désiré Lemonnier, Jean-Baptiste Hanquet and Jean-Louis Rassenfosse Brouet. Ideas were good, but they needed more money than their savings, and they found it by the bankers Theodore Cerfontaine and Gérard Nagelmackers, and the brother-in-law of the latter, Joseph Forgeur, lawyer and future Senator .

At the end of July 1836, they constituted a public limited company and acquired various land and buildings on which the new gallery was to be built. Among these, the House of the Poor in Isle, that existed on the Vinâve Island since ancient times. It should also be mentioned that the whole neighbourhood in Isle was undergoing a transformation, and, above all, real estate development at the initiative of the Orban family with the filling of the various arms and other biez of the Meuse.

It even took them a certain audacity to embark on such a project, as the Belgian and international context of the time was tense. It was only during the first months of 1839 that a definitive peace settled between Belgium and the Netherlands.

At the end of 1836, the shareholders met again to adopt the full statutes of their company, which ultimately became a limited partnership, as public limited companies, a recent legal structure, were highly criticized. Their call to different offer for the construction not having been a success, it is finally Rassenfosse Brouet who proposed to do the work and he had to take the license of entrepreneur to do it.

The savers, though solicited, did not rush to support this initiative either. If the works were completed with a six-month advance on the planned timing, the planned financing was not a success, both during construction, which cost much more than expected, and after the opening of Passage Lemonnier. As a number of shops were difficult to rent because at the end of 1838, following the bankruptcy of a bank (history would repeat itself), a financial and economic crisis broke out that lasted several years.

If Cerfontaine, Nagelmackers, and Smith had the means, it was not the same with the other partners who had to retire under disadvantageous conditions.

Nevertheless, for the time, the Passage Lemonnier constituted in Belgium a great novelty and for Liège an edifice quite exceptional, allowing it to compete with other cities of importance. Its influence went beyond the borders when we see the number of foreign merchants who came to settle there, beside the fact that it  also welcomed many members of the new Jewish Community of Liège.

On the local level, the gallery became an attraction; the crowd came largely, compelling its managers to hire one and then several guards to ensure security. But the most interesting thing was that it gave birth to the first "Carré" of Liège, the public walking on the Vinâve d'Ile, Rue Cathedrale, Rue de l'Université and Rue Pont d'Île (a square) with the Passage Lemonnier in the middle. One did not say I go "to the square" but well I go "to make the square".

Life was not a long and tranquil river for Passage Lemonnier, it had its ups and downs. Around 2005, many questions were asked about its future, both in terms of patrimonial and commercial interests. A round table was even organized at the initiative of APRAM (Association for the Promotion and Research on Modern Architecture). 10 years later, finding i willingness and financial resources in its shareholders, it revived as one of the engines of the commercial dynamics of the city centre and of major investments made both to upgrade the premises in various aspects and to Initiate larger projects to create new retail space.

In 2014, Passage Lemonnier is still there despite the creation in the 1970s, with the development of pedestrian statute of a number of galleries that either have disappeared or are no more than the shadow of themselves. At the end of the nineteenth century, another gallery could have emerged behind the Grand Post. The place was therefore well chosen in 1835-1836 to establish the gallery in what is still today the hyper commercial centre.

The gallery

Architecture

There is not much left from the neo-classical passage of the nineteenth century: the upper facade of the University Street, one or the other original fountain in cellars, side galleries and their discharge pipes in cast iron, as well as a bronze lantern holder preserved at the Museum of Walloon Life. The Salle du Casino (or the Bazaar and finally "La LEGIA") and the Café de la Renaissance, which originally had two levels in 1900, were transformed in the early 1950s

It was during the years 1934-1937, under the direction of the Managing Director of the time and the architect Henri Snyers, that it was fundamentally transformed in the Art Deco style that we still know today, except for the glass canopy and dome replaced in the 1960s. It should be noted that the upper façade on the Vinâve d'Ile was destroyed after a bombardment in May 1940 and that the half-crystal brick vault Val-Saint-Lambert was damaged by the fall of a V1 on the Vinâve of Island.

The fittings thus created gave a new lease of life to the Passage Lemonnier, which needed it and made it possible to access it not by stairs but by inclined ways.

Houses

But the Passage Lemonnier, were also men, women and children. In the nineteenth century, almost three hundred people lived in the 56 houses because it was built in the form of independent houses with cellars, ground floor, three floors and attics, with access to lateral passageways overlooking The Vinâve d'Île, the rue Lulay des Fèbvres or the rue de l'Université.

Trades people

These are generations of traders who succeeded each other, and in no. 47, a peculiarity, almost from the beginning, were opticians from father to son. Some professions were well represented, such as stockbrokers, lithographers and photographers, and gunsmiths. On the other hand, food was not, except for the store Tierentijn first installed in No. 50, then street Lulay des Fèbvres where it will be succeeded in 1945, by the early marketer Jean Raisier whose business will be taken over by his son, well known caterer, Jean Marie. Charles Michel, an optician, had his shop, about 1850, at the number 23 in the Rotunda.

It is also difficult not to remember those businesses that have made and still do the Passage Lemonnier, such as the Maisons Monsel, Michel, Remy (La Grande Parfumerie des Artistes), Dethine, Etincel or the 100,000 Shirts, and for example actually such as the Maison Selection, the Maison Greven or Optique Declerck, as well as the school of cutting and sewing of the Scafs family established in the residence overlooking the rue de l'Université for many years.

Who says trade, says Associations of traders and the gallery has his. Since the seventies, it has played an important role in animation and promotion, with ups and downs. Initially, however, it was badly seen by the managers of Passage Lemonnier: in no case should it become an "union".

Art

In different ways, the Passage Lemonnier welcomed even more artists, including the fresco by Émile Berchmans at Planet Parfum, the statues by Madeleine Schoofs in the rotunda or the stage curtain of the Salle de la Légia de Scauflaire.