To learn more about Wallonia in a fun and engaging way, a contest was organized among the ambassadors of the Wallonia.be brand to collect anecdotes about our beautiful region. Discover the three winners who were selected by lot.
Did you know Wallonia ? Roller skates were invented by a Walloon
This anecdote was shared by Shaded Olivia van Esch. The Walloon Jean-Joseph Merlin lived between 1735 and 1803. He was originally from Huy and is the inventor of roller skates.
“I found this anecdote because I am currently the President of the Explort alumni, and we have organized many quizzes and contests with our alumni, for which I searched for as much information as possible about Wallonia,” explains Shaded Olivia van Esch.
“For me, the most memorable thing about these anecdotes is being able to connect them to an everyday object like roller skates and to see how Belgium in general, and Wallonia in particular, stand out internationally thanks to their expertise.”
Did you know Wallonia? Liège built a metro… that never ran
This anecdote was shared by Guerbali Abderrahim.
“In the 1970s, a metro system was supposed to be built in Liège. Tunnels were indeed dug… but the project was abandoned due to a lack of funding. Some sections still exist, ghost-like, beneath the city.”
Did you know Wallonia ? The forest, a living memory of Wallonia
This anecdote was shared by David Chauvier.
“As I walk along the paths of the Solvay Estate in La Hulpe, the trunks of the beech trees rise majestically beneath an autumn sky pierced by the last glimmers of daylight. The park opens onto the Sonian Forest, a remnant of a vast woodland mantle that once covered northern Europe.
On the Walloon side, it stretches from La Hulpe to Waterloo, forming one of the country’s most remarkable forested areas, where nature and history intertwine.
At this time of year, the light grows softer and the foliage takes on hues of gold and copper: the forest seems suspended between life and silence.
A space of power, worship, and resources, it was successively a sacred territory, a princely domain, and a source of energy—shaped by centuries as much as by humankind.
In the Middle Ages, Cistercian abbeys introduced rational management practices there; yet the quest for timber and land also led to a massive retreat of forests, of which the Sonian Forest remains one of the rare witnesses.
Even today, it represents a living but fragile heritage: subject to urban and climatic pressures, it reminds us that nature, too, bears the marks of time.
Further south, bathed in a diaphanous light, the Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse National Park is also striking for the quality of its trails. I have been there, and I will return. Yes, Walloons remain deeply attached to it: nearly half of them regularly visit a forest or a natural park, reconnecting, during a walk, with this ancestral bond between land, nature, and identity.
A symbol of the delicate balance between heritage and the future, the Walloon forest reminds us that, in the whisper of its leaves, the memory of the world lives on—something that must be respected for future generations, far from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.”
Isabelle Anneet (AWEX)