LIERRE, or Lier, a town of Belgium, in the province of Antwerp, 9 J miles south-east of Antwerp (on the railway to Malines), at the junction of the Great and Little Neethe. It is a busy place of 15,659 inhabitants (1874), and manufactures silk, lace, and shoes, beetroot sugar, and a peculiar kind of white beer known as cavesse. The church of St Gommarius (in plan a Latin cross with a lofty tower in front) is one of the most notable buildings of its class in Belgium. It was commenced in 1425, but not completed for more than a century. Of the fine stained glass windows three were presented by the emperor Maximilian.

Lierre, which dates from the 9th century, owed much to the favour of the dukes of Brabant, to whose territory it belonged. The more important facts in its annals are the celebration of the marriage of Philip the Fair with Joanna of Castile (1496); the residence in the town of Christian II. of Denmark during his exile; and the contests between the Dutch and Belgian forces in 1830. Joseph II. ordered the fortifications to be razed in 1784.