What is "chokier"

Chokier is a village and section of the municipality of Flémalle in the province of Liège in Belgium, located on the left bank of the river Meuse.

The village is dominated by the Château de Chokier, an 18th-century rebuild of the earlier medieval castle, standing on a cliff overlooking the Meuse valley.

For centuries the castle was owned by the prominent Surlet de Chokier family, which included the Baron Surlet de Chokier who was Regent of Belgium in 1831 before the establishment of the independent monarchy after the Belgian Revolution.

The strategic and defensive advantages of the cliff where the château now stands were recognised as early as the Palaeolithic period, from when traces of human habitation have been discovered.