Cour Saint-Paul is the name given to the reception rooms of the ground floor of a house which was, by the time it was built in the eighteenth century, part of the enlarged Saint-Paul's cloister area, corresponding to today's Bonne Fortune Street and its mansions.

This house may have been built around 1760 for a canon, a member of the college of the then collegiate church Saint-Paul. In the 1790's, by the time of the secularization of the Church's properties, it belonged to Canon Raick, who transmitted it by will to his nephew Wéry-Mathieu Raick.

Since that time, and up to 1999, it has been inhabited by members of various families from Liege. It then followed the evolution of most private mansions, between courtyard and garden. But in the early years of the 19^th century, it knew a last period of religious life, when it was used as a residence by Mgr. Barrett, Vicar-general of Liege, who, under the French Empire and the Dutch Kingdom, administered the diocese for many years in the absence of a duly appointed Bishop.

In 1999, members of the family of the late owner decided to take over the mansion and to give it a destiny in line with today's needs and requirements. It took two years of preparation, followed by 9 months of construction works, to restore the whole building: restoration of the roof, new set-up and upgrading of the interior with the inclusion of an elevator, division into studios and apartments, restoration of the former window frames and the original decoration, removal of later additions, new electrical and IT wiring, new fire alarm… Throughout these 9 months, 53 specialized workers and craftsmen worked in such a way that, on September 6th, 2002, Rue Bonne Fortune 17 could welcome the reception rooms of Cour Saint-Paul, as well as a full office floor and three apartments or studios.

At the inaugural ceremony, the participants and the press praised the quality of the restoration, resulting from a private initiative and solely based on private financing.

Whether you want to discover the place for yourself or to organize an event, I would be happy to show you the receptions rooms of Cour saint-Paul: we will make an appointment whenever it suits you.

Michel Nève de Mévergnies