Cathédrale Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Lambert

The church of Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Lambert was the cathedral of Liege in 1794, when it was destroyed. The enormous Gothic cathedral was located on the Place Saint Lambert in the heart of Liege. With two choirs, two transepts, three buildings with three floors, a circuit of apside and collateral chapels, a monastery and a 135 meter high tower the cathedral of Notre-Dame-et-Sint-Lambert was the largest church in the the Middle Ages in the western world and the most important monument in the Maas-gotiek. It could accommodate 4.000 people.

The murder of Bishop Lambert of Maastricht
Lambert, bishop of Maestricht, was murdered by the men of Dodon around 705 on the grounds of a former Gallo-Roman villa in Maastricht. Although the saint was first buried in Maestricht, his successor Saint Hubert repatriated his body and buried it on the Place Saint-Lambert. Shortly afterwards, the episcopal seat was moved from Maestricht to Liège and the cathedral was built on this site in honor of Bishop Lambert.

In 1794, on the French regime, the cathedral was broken down in the wake of the Liège revolution. The Liege revolutionaries saw the cathedral as a symbol of the power of the prince-bishop. The demolition of the large towers was put out to tender in 1795. In 1803 the western tower was blown up. The site was finally leveled in 1827.

In 2000, a scaffolding with tarpaulins as a 1:1 mass model of the east choir of St. Lambertus Cathedrall was added to the newly designed St. Lambertus Square in Liège.