The municipality consists of the following districts:Ensival,Heusy,Lambermont,Petit-Rechain,Stembert, and Verviers. It is also the center of an agglomeration that includesDison andPepinster, making it the second biggest in the province and an important regional center, located roughly halfway betweenLiège and theGerman border.
Water has played an important role in the town's economy, notably in the development first of its textile and later its tourist industries. As a result, many fountains have been built in Verviers, leading it to be named Wallonia's "Water Capital".[2] The seats of the two Walloon public institutions for water distribution and water treatment are located in the town.[2][3]
Various flint and bone fragments, as well asRoman coins, were found in this area, attesting to the early settlements in the region. In the 4th century, the Romans had to deal with a constant push of Germanic tribes coming from the east. Successful at first at containing them, they finally had to concede defeat, allowingClovis'sSalian Franks to occupy the region at the end of the 5th century. The Verviers area was covered with forests and became a hunting ground for theMerovingian kings, who maintained avicus in neighbouringTheux. It was also slowly Christianized by the monks of the nearby Abbey ofStavelot.
View of Verviers in the mid-19th century. Watercolor by Joseph Fussell.
The first mention of a textile industry in this area dates from the 15th century. One century later, the cloth industry took the place of the older metallurgical works, thanks in part to theEighty Years War raging in the neighbouringNetherlands. The size of the town, however, remained relatively modest. It was only in 1651 that the expansion of thefulleries led to Verviers being recognized as one of theprince-bishopric'sbonnes villes (main cities).
The end of the 18th century was troubled by theFrench Revolution. The annexation of Liège to France in 1795 caused a steep economic decline and unprecedented poverty. The city's fortunes rose again after theBattle of Waterloo (1815). Verviers was at the eastern end of thesillon industriel, the industrial backbone of Wallonia. Although the Napoleonic wars brought economic uncertainty, the textile industry continued to grow throughout this period. IndustrialistWilliam Cockerill brought his knowledge of the machines already in British industry and introduced mechanization to the factories ofIwan Simonis starting a new era in the Verviers textile industry.[4] Thereafter, roads were paved, gas lighting was installed, and the city doubled in size thanks to theIndustrial Revolution. AfterWorld War I, Verviers could share withBradford the title of "Wool Capital of the World".
Film of US First Army headquarters withGeorge Patton on 3 November 1944 in Verviers
On the night of 14-15 July, the Vesdre burst its banks and caused massive water damage. There was an exceptionally heavy rainfall that night and the dam of the reservoir at Eupen was opened. The human and material damage was incalculable. People spoke of greater damage than during World War II.[citation needed]
Verviers was home to a thriving wool and textile industry that was renowned for its quality and contributed greatly to the growth of the town. However, as of the 1950s, the local factories could not face international competition and started closing one after the other which prompted the economic decline of the town. The economy has been slowly recovering since the mid-1990s but remains fragile. Several commercial complexes have opened in recent years in an attempt to revitalize the most affected areas.
Verviers counts several museums, including the Wool and Fashion Tourist Centre, housed in a former factory with aNeoclassical-style façade.
TheGrand Theatre, also known asLa Bonbonnière, was built in the same style at the end of the 19th century, while theGrand Poste was built in theNeogothic style.
The city has a number of interesting fountains and thematic strolling paths.
Verviers has a significant Muslim population, with the proportion estimated to be approximately 25% as of 2020. Much of Verviers' Muslim community is impoverished, and suffers from resentment, causing those disillusioned to become attracted toIslamic extremism as seen notably during the2015 Verviers police raid on Islamists.[7][8][9]
The migrant communities also suffer from significant unemployment, and are of mainlyTurkish andMoroccan origin. Verviers also has Kurdish, Congolese, Chechen, Somali and Sub-Saharan African communities.[10] Like its sister city ofRoubaix in France, andBradford in Britain, with similarly high Muslim populations, migrants from Africa and Asia moved in the 1960s to Verviers to work in industrial mills, and has suffered from subsequent poverty after its manufacturing was outsourced overseas.[11] Many migrants live in the Hodimont section of the town, where there are several Turkish restaurants, African shops, halal butcheries, and mosques.[12]
^Gutmann, Myron P. (1988).Toward the Modern Economy: Early Industry in Europe, 1500-1800 (1st ed.). New York:Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. pp. 194–206.ISBN0-394-34312-3.
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