La Louvière

La Louvière is a municipality and city in the Walloon province of Hainaut, Belgium, and the capital of the Centre region, a former coal mining area in the industrial belt between the Borinage to the west and the Pays Noir to the east. The municipality takes in the districts of Boussoit, Haine-Saint-Paul, Haine-Saint-Pierre, Houdeng-Aimeries, Houdeng-Gœgnies, La Louvière itself, Maurage, Saint-Vaast, Strépy-Bracquegnies and Trivières. The territory was a forested place called Menaulu, from an Old French phrase for a wolf's lair, belonging to the community of Saint-Vaast and the Aulne Abbey, and the present name was in use by 1284. Coal was first dug there in 1390, but large-scale growth waited for roads, canals and railways in the nineteenth century, and La Louvière was recognised as an independent city in 1869. It is now the fifth largest city in Wallonia. Its four hydraulic boat lifts on the Canal du Centre were listed by UNESCO in 1998, the Bois-du-Luc mining complex is part of a 2012 World Heritage listing, and the Laetare carnival with its Gilles is its best-known festival. National estimates give about 81,750 inhabitants at the start of 2026.