Cristal Vivant: Val Saint-Lambert at 200 (Musée du Val Saint-Lambert, Seraing)

Belgium’s oldest crystal works turns two hundred this year, and the site where it started is telling the story itself. Val Saint-Lambert was founded in 1826 by François Kemlin and Auguste Lelièvre inside a former Cistercian abbey at Seraing, on the Meuse just upstream from Liège — a glassworks that took over a monastery, and never left it. For the bicentenary the Musée du Val Saint-Lambert has opened Cristal Vivant, a temporary exhibition that runs on the site until December.

The exhibition sets historical pieces against work made now: iconic objects from two centuries of production alongside original contemporary creations, including an exclusive collaboration with Spray Can Arts. What holds it together is not a style but a place — the artistic, industrial and human history of a working crystal site, told where the furnaces are.

The bicentenary is spread across four Belgian institutions. Alongside this exhibition at Seraing, the Grand Curtius in Liège shows Japonisme et Art nouveau, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Charleroi shows Art Déco et modernisme au Val Saint-Lambert (1925–1939), and the Design Museum Brussels shows Val Saint-Lambert & Design, on the post-1958 decades.

Practical details

• When: 11 April – 6 December 2026
• Where: Musée du Val Saint-Lambert, Esplanade du Val 1, 4100 Seraing, Belgium
• Opening hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 10am–6pm (daily during Belgian school holidays); last admission 5pm
• Admission: €17 adults (25+), €14 over-65s, €10 ages 6–25, free under 6; family ticket (2 adults + 2 children) €40; groups of 15 or more €12 per person
• Also on site: free glassblowing demonstrations; paid workshops (€50–€60)

Full details and tickets are on the bicentenary’s own site. Cultural Heritage Online lists this exhibition for readers planning a visit to the Liège area; admission is handled directly by the museum.