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Department of Ourthe
*Département de l'Ourthe* (French)
*Departement Ourte* (Dutch)
*Departement der Urt* (German)
Department of Ourthe Département de l'Ourthe (French); Departement Ourte (Dutch); Departement der Urt (German)
1795–1814
	Ourthe within the northern French Empire (1811)
Status	Department of the French First Republic and the French First Empire
Chef-lieu	Liège; 50°27′N 3°57′E / 50.450°N 3.950°E
Official languages	French
Common languages	Dutch, German
History
• Creation	1 October 1795
• Treaty of Paris, disestablished	30 May 1814
Population
• 1796	325,278
• 1800	327,121
• 1812	352,264
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Austrian Netherlands
	Prince-Bishopric of Liège
	Princely Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy
Province of Liege
Today part of	Belgium; Germany;

Ourthe (French: [uʁt], Dutch: Ourte, German: Urt) was a department of the French First Republic and French First Empire in present-day Belgium and Germany. It was named after the river Ourthe (Oûte). Its territory corresponded more or less with that of the present-day Belgian province of Liège and a small adjacent region in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It was created on 1 October 1795, when the Austrian Netherlands and the Prince-Bishopric of Liège were officially annexed by the French Republic.^[4] Before this annexation, the territory included in the department had lain partly in the Bishopric of Liège, the Abbacy of Stavelot-Malmedy, the Duchies of Limburg and Luxembourg, and the County of Namur.

After Napoleon was defeated in 1814, most of the department became part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands as the province of Liège. The easternmost part (Eupen, Malmedy, Sankt Vith, Kronenburg, Schleiden) became part of the Prussian Rhine Province; part of this (Eupen, Malmedy and Sankt Vith) was taken back into Liège province after the First World War, under the Treaty of Versailles.

Administration

The Chef-lieu of the department was Liège. The department was subdivided into the following three arrondissements and cantons:

The Prefect was the highest state representative in the department.

Term start	Term end	Office holder
2 March 1800^[5]	17 April 1806	Antoine François Ehrard Marie Catherine Desmousseaux de Givre
17 April 1806^[6]	30 May 1814	Charles Emmanuel Micoud d'Umons

The Secretary-General was the deputy to the Prefect.