Parc St. Leonard

The Saint-Léonard Park, also called the Saint-Léonard Esplanade, is an esplanade & park north of the Place des Déportés (parking lot with trees towards the water)

At this site, the water-filled St. Léonard canal of the Meuse was dug in the 13th century, serving as the moat at northern city walls of the city of Liège and as a refuge for boats in case of floods or river debacles. The canal, which was dug perpendicular to the Maas, was approximately 400 meters long. During the 19th century, the canal was filled up. At the beginning of the 19th century, a weekly horse market was held there.

In the mid-19th century, the neo-Gothic St. Léonarde prison was built here, designed by the Brussels architect Joseph Jonas Dumont. This imposing building where resistance fighters and political opponents were imprisoned during the Second World War served as a prison until 1979 before being demolished in 1982.

The site left vacant after the demolition of the Saint-Léonard prison leaves a large space of approximately 18,000 m2 and was converted into a public space in 2001, following a design competition organized in 1994 by the city of Liège. The esplanade was given the official name Parc Saint-Léonard. The combination that won the competition in 1994 consisted of the architectural firm Baumans-Deffet (Arlette Baumans), the architectural firm Aloys Beguin - Brigitte Massart and Anne Rondia.

The design assignment consisted of:
* The handling of road traffic,
* The construction of the current parking lot on the Place des Déportés:
* The construction of a square and a large open esplenade for various activities
* Creation of the Carmelite Forest

Today the square is a place to meet and relax. It is visited by the entire neighborhood, large and small and from all backgrounds. There is also a memorial place, the back wall of which is decorated with an excerpt from Garcia Lorca's poem: 'In the flag of freedom I have embroidered the greatest love of my life.' A stainless steel band runs the entire length of the square with a poem by Savitskaya, 'Foot on the hard, the soft, on the coal and vineyard soil, on the dust and the gun ground, on the chains, the bars and the hundred thousandth bricks and to the bright wood divided by a wallwork...' This is a place that has become a testimony to cultural diversity and freedom of expression.