Liège is a city of steep streets, river quays and big cultural institutions, and four of them sit within an easy walk of each other. For about eight centuries the city was the capital of a prince-bishopric, a state within the Holy Roman Empire, which explains its many churches and its grand palace. This guide covers the Grand Curtius museum on the Meuse, the Royal Opera of Wallonia, the Théâtre de Liège and the university's Aquarium-Museum across the river. All four are stops on our Liège scavenger hunt, which links the city's churches, squares and museums.
Grand Curtius
The Grand Curtius is Liège's main museum of art and history, and its heart is a striking red-brick and stone palace on the quay of the Meuse. It was built around 1600 for Jean Curtius, a wealthy Liège industrialist who made his fortune supplying gunpowder and arms. The style, with alternating bands of brick and limestone and tall cross-windows, is typical of the Mosan Renaissance.
Since 2009 the palace and several neighbouring buildings have formed one museum, grouping collections that were once spread across the city: archaeology, religious and Mosan art, decorative arts, glass and a large collection of weapons, a reminder of Liège's long history as an arms-making city. Among the treasures is the ivory Evangelistary of Notger, made around the year 1000. The Grand Curtius is the last stop of the scavenger hunt.
- The banded brick and stone façade, best seen from the quay or from the bridge across the river.
- The weapons galleries, which show how central gun-making was to Liège.
- The Mosan art, made in the Meuse valley in the Middle Ages, including metalwork and ivories.
Aquarium-Museum
Across the Meuse, on the Quai Van Beneden, the Aquarium-Muséum belongs to the University of Liège and is housed in the university's zoology institute from the late 19th century. The aquarium in the basement shows fish and other aquatic animals from rivers, seas and coral reefs, and it has long been a favourite with Liège families and school groups.
Upstairs, the zoology museum is an old-style gallery full of skeletons, shells and preserved animals, with a fin whale skeleton as its showpiece. It is a good stop on a rainy day, and it is one of the scavenger hunt stops.
- The whale skeleton, which fills the length of its gallery.
- The building itself, an academic institute of the 1880s still used by the university.
Royal Opera of Wallonia
The Opéra Royal de Wallonie performs in the Théâtre Royal on the Place de la République française. The foundation stone was laid in 1818, and the theatre opened on 4 November 1820 with Zémire et Azor by André-Modeste Grétry, the composer born in Liège in 1741. Parts of its walls were built with stones salvaged from the demolished Cathedral of Saint-Lambert and a Carthusian convent.
Between 2009 and 2012 the building was fully restored and extended upwards with a modern top floor that sits on the classical façade. In front stands a bronze statue of Grétry, whose heart, according to the city's tradition, rests in its base. The opera house is a stop on the scavenger hunt.
Théâtre de Liège
The city's main drama theatre has occupied the building of the Société libre d'Émulation on the Place du Vingt-Août since the autumn of 2013. The Émulation building, completed in 1934 behind a neoclassical façade, was never designed as a theatre, so between 2003 and 2013 the architects Pierre Hebbelinck and Pierre de Wit converted it, creating a main hall with 558 seats and a larger stage.
Look for the smaller hall that projects over the square in a modern volume, a deliberate contrast with the old façade. The company itself began in 1918 as the Théâtre royal du Gymnase and moved several times before settling here. Across the square is the university's Faculty of Letters. The theatre is a stop on the scavenger hunt.
On the way: Place Saint-Lambert
Between the opera and the Grand Curtius you cross the Place Saint-Lambert, the largest square in the centre. For centuries it was filled by the huge Gothic Cathedral of Saint-Lambert, seat of the prince-bishops who ruled Liège. After the Liège Revolution of 1789 the cathedral was demolished, and its position is marked on the square. Under the square, the Archéoforum shows its foundations and older remains. On the north side stands the Palace of the Prince-Bishops, with its courtyard of carved columns, now used by the courts. The square is a scavenger hunt stop.
On the way: Saint-Barthélemy
Just beyond the Grand Curtius, the Romanesque church of Saint-Barthélemy, with its two west towers, keeps one of the great works of medieval metalwork: a brass baptismal font made in the early 12th century and resting on ten oxen. It is usually attributed to Renier de Huy. The church is also a scavenger hunt stop.
How to see them in one walk
Start at the Aquarium-Museum on the right bank, then cross the Meuse and walk up towards the Place du Vingt-Août for the Théâtre de Liège. Continue to the Opéra on the Place de la République française and on to the wide Place Saint-Lambert, where the old cathedral once stood. Finish along the Féronstrée at the Grand Curtius by the river, with Saint-Barthélemy a few steps further on.
See Liège with World City Trail
Our Liège scavenger hunt turns the city centre into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops, from the cathedral to the Grand Curtius. All four places in this guide are stops: the Aquarium-Museum, the Théâtre de Liège, the Royal Opera of Wallonia and the Grand Curtius, along with the Collegiate Church of Saint-Jacques, the statue of Charlemagne, the Place Saint-Lambert, Saint-André and Saint-Barthélemy.
If you prefer a different format, there is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Liège.
Play the Liège scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Liège →
Play the outdoor escape game in Liège →
Facts checked in October 2026.