{
  "id": 18152217,
  "title": "'Tombe de la Famille Nagelmackers' in Liège, Belgium",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/04/tombe-de-la-famille-nagelmackers-in-liege-belgium",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-11-04T17:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Atlas Obscura",
    "slug": "atlas-obscura",
    "url": "https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tombe-de-la-famille-nagelmackers"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Angleur is a residential neighbourhood located in the south of Liège, Belgium, situated between Sart-Tilman Hill and railway lines in the Ourthe Valley. This area is home to two castles: Château Péralta and Château Nagelmackers. The latter was acquired by the Nagelmackers family in the 19th century and donated land in 1864 to establish the town’s cemetery, Diguette Cemetery. Among the family buried there is Georges Nagelmackers, an engineer and industrialist who founded the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits and the original Orient Express.\n\nBorn in 1839, Georges Nagelmackers faced numerous obstacles in his pursuit of success. After his father sent him to the United States in 1867 to hide after expressing his desire to marry his cousin, Nagelmackers became interested in Pullman night trains, developing his own idea further. Upon his return to Belgium, he was tasked with managing the family’s blast furnaces and mine, but this did not deter him. In April 1870, he published an explanatory brochure introducing the term \"sleeper carriages\" (wagon-lit). Despite financial opposition from his family, King Leopold II of Belgium supported Nagelmackers, enabling him to run the first sleeper carriage between Paris and Vienna in November 1872.\n\nNagelmackers' partnership with American Colonel William D Alton Mann, after encountering him in London, led to the creation of the Mann’s Sleeping Carriage Company in 1873. They invented a carriage design with compartments opening onto a side corridor, providing access to toilets at the end of the carriage, a design still used today. Their initial success came when Prince of Wales, later King George V, traveled to his brother’s wedding in Saint Petersburg in one of these carriages.\n\nIn 1876, Nagelmackers and Mann established the International Sleeping Car and European Express Company, adding the two lions of the Belgian national coat of arms to their logo, a nod to King Leopold II’s financial support. In 1883, after Mann returned to the United States and sold his shares to King Leopold II, Nagelmackers extended the Paris-Vienna line to Constantinople (Istanbul), launching the Orient Express. Georges Nagelmackers passed away on July 10, 1905, at his château in Villepreux, near Versailles, France, and was buried in the family tomb at Diguette Cemetery in Angleur, Belgium.",
  "summary": "Angleur is a neighbourhood in the south of Liège. It is a one-hour-and-15-minute drive west of Brussels. The area itself is not particularly interesting; it is a residential neighbourhood located between Sart-Tilman Hill and the railway lines in the Ourthe Valley. However, visitors may be surprised to discover two castles amongst the houses: Château Péralta and Château Nagelmackers. The latter…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}