Habay   ▪

Anlier
The pont d'Oye
The ironworks
Maurice Grévisse
The Mageroy Gallo-Roman villa
Rulles, the village of bridges

Anlier

Anlier, a picturesque Ardennes village which reaches 480 metres at its highest point, lies alongside one of the largest wooded areas in the country (7,000 hectares) which shares the same name: the Anlier forest. The village has retained a typically rural character. The history of Anlier is closely linked to the forests but also to the village church which has played an important role.

Anlier still has the character of a traditional Ardennes village with its dispersed dwellings (not grouped like in Gaume) and some typical houses which we shall review here. The proximity of the Gaume is, however, evident from the alignment of the 'rue de Maou'.

Anlier's architectural characteristics
The material used in buildings is shale, as in all of the Ardennes villages. This shale was extracted on-site from local quarries. Brick and limestone are used only for the door and window frames. To prevent water from infiltrating, the walls are generally roughcast. The shale low stone walls were previously covered with scoria from the former ironworks in the region (Trapperie, Pont d'Oye, Châtelet and Bologne). Very few of these low stone walls exist now in Anlier but many can still be seen in Habay-la-Neuve and Habay-la-Vieille.
It wasn't until after the second world war that houses were built from other materials such as brick. This was especially the case on new plots of land surrounding the village.