Lier Favorites

Favorite thing: People from Lier have the nickname Sheepheads. The story behind this is the following:
There were two competing cities: Leuven and Lier. In 1425 duke Jan IV of Brabant offered the right to hold one university and one market. Lier had the first choice and instead of choosing the university it choose the sheepmarket. Leuven became a university city and people from Lier had to live with the nickname sheepheads......

There are some statues of sheep in the city but we liked this sheep over the door of a shop better.

Favorite thing: Lier has some popular figures, Wardje is one of them. Although he is known as Wardje from the Jezuits, he was not a clergyman. But he was more catholic than every pastor you could find. He earned his money as helping priest in Antwerpen, and later he became a Jezuit in Lier.
Wardje was a great danser, and he loved it. At the end of his live he had troubles walking but nevertheless he sold recordbraking numbers of almanacs and memberships of the Brothehood of Sint-Gummarus.

Favorite thing: Lier is a little small city East-South to Antwerp. It lends itself perfect for walks, cycling tours, even boat tours!
But after all those efforts, one deserves a refreshing drink!
An excellent place is this recently renewed Zimmerplaats with huge terraces in the sun.
Cheers!

Fondest memory: It is small, nice, not too crowded.
An excellent place to spend an early morning or an afternoon.

Favorite thing: Over 40% of Lier's population makes money in industry. This is very high as in surrounding Flanders it is not averaged. Since the industrial revolution Lier started to built up it's rich past again with metalurgical industry. "Van Hool", a quite famous bus-manufacturer, finds it's factories here. This industry has made the "Lierenaar" wealthier then other Belgians, which still is so. The average wage in this town is 10% higher then in the rest of the country. This might also be a reason why Lier is looking so good today, as the people spended the last century obviously some money to keep there town a historical and cultural highlight within Flanders.

Favorite thing: Lier, it's not a big city, no a large town. With just more then 30.000 inhabitants it belongs to the mediocre towns in Belgium, but ... it used to be an important town in medieval times. This town, built on the banks of the river Mede, had access to the sea and was therefor blossoming with it's contacts to all over the world. However, like many Flanders towns, the harbour sanded and was closed. Industry abondened Lier and a hard time was ahead. This however resulted in the preservation of the many monumental buildings within the center. There where the housingcosts are high, because many want to live in a certain place, makes also investments higher. Then tearing an old house down is not that special, but in Lier the houses were restored as they were as the people that stayed were not (anymore) that wealthy. Until recent times of course. Now we realise how important this heritage is and try hard and against enormous costs to keep the magnificent historic buildings in shape.

Fondest memory: When I just have an extra hour to spend after buisness in belgium, I choose often central situated Lier for a walk and a lovely hour of optimal relaxation in one of the most beautiful environments on earth.

Fondest memory: The former town wall is a great tree-lined footpath with statues, benches and parkland for a nice walk around town.