From top to bottom, left to right: theLille Tower, some towers ofEuralille, the Rue de la Clef in Old Lille, the Place du Général-de-Gaulle, the Shangri-La tulip sculpture for Lille 2004, the Porte de Paris with the belfry of theCity Hall andLille-Flandres train station
The city of Lille proper had a population of 236,234 in 2020 within its small municipal territory of 35 km2 (14 sq mi),[7] but together with its Frenchsuburbs andexurbs the Lillemetropolitan area (French part only), which extends over 1,666 km2 (643 sq mi), had a population of 1,515,061 that same year (January 2020 census),[5] the fourth most populated in France afterParis,Lyon, andMarseille. The city of Lille and 94 suburban French municipalities have formed since 2015 theEuropean Metropolis of Lille, anindirectly electedmetropolitan authority now in charge of wider metropolitan issues, with a population of 1,182,250 at the January 2020 census.[8]
Nicknamed in France the "Capital of Flanders", Lille and its surroundings belong to the historical region ofRomance Flanders, a former territory of the county ofFlanders that is not part of the linguistic area ofWest Flanders. A garrison town (as evidenced by its Citadel), Lille has had an eventful history from theMiddle Ages to theFrench Revolution. Very often besieged during its history, it belonged successively to theKingdom of France, theBurgundian State, theHoly Roman Empire of Germany and theSpanish Netherlands before being definitively attached to the France ofLouis XIV following theWar of Spanish Succession along with the entire territory making up the historic province ofFrench Flanders. Lille was again under siege in 1792 during theFranco-Austrian War, and in 1914 and 1940. It was severely tested by the twoworld wars of the 20th century during which it was occupied and suffered destruction.
A merchant city since its origins and a manufacturing city since the 16th century, theIndustrial Revolution made it a great industrial capital, mainly around thetextile and mechanical industries. Their decline, from the 1960s onwards, led to a long period of crisis and it was not until the 1990s that the conversion to thetertiary sector and the rehabilitation of the disaster-stricken districts gave the city a different face. Today, the historic center, Old Lille, is characterized by its 17th-century red brick town houses, its paved pedestrian streets and its central Grand'Place. The belfry of theHôtel de Ville (City Hall) is one of the 23belfries in theNord-Pas-de-Calais andSomme regions that were classified asUNESCO World Heritage Sites in July 2005, in recognition of their architecture and importance to the rise of municipal power in Europe.[9]
From 830 to around 910, theVikings invaded Flanders. After the destruction caused byNormans' and theMagyars' invasion, the eastern part of the region was ruled by various local princes.
The first mention of the town dates from 1066:apud Insulam (Latin for "at the island"). It was then controlled by theCounty of Flanders, as were the regional cities (theRoman citiesBoulogne,Arras,Cambrai as well as theCarolingian citiesValenciennes,Saint-Omer,Ghent andBruges). The County of Flanders thus extended to the left bank of theScheldt, one of the richest and most prosperous regions of Europe.
The Carolingian dukeÉvrard lived in the city in the 9th century and participated in many of the day's political and military affairs. There was an important Battle of Lille in 1054.Raimbert of Lille (fl. c. 1100) was an earlynominalist who taught at Lille.[11]
From the 12th century, the fame of the Lille cloth fair began to grow. In 1144 Saint-Sauveur parish was formed, which would give its name to the modern-dayquartier Saint-Sauveur.
The counts of Flanders,Boulogne, andHainaut came together with England and East Frankia and tried to regain territory taken byPhilip II of France following Henry II of England's death, a war that ended with the French victory atBouvines in 1214.Infante Ferdinand, Count of Flanders was imprisoned and the county fell into dispute: it would be his wife,Jeanne, Countess of Flanders andConstantinople, who ruled the city. She was said to be well loved by the residents of Lille, who by that time numbered 10,000.
In 1225, thestreet performer andjugglerBertrand Cordel, doubtlessly encouraged by local lords, tried to pass himself off asBaldwin I of Constantinople (the father of Jeanne of Flanders), who had disappeared at thebattle of Adrianople. He pushed the counties ofFlanders andHainaut towards sedition against Jeanne in order to recover his land. She called her cousin,Louis VIII ("The Lion"). He unmasked the imposter, whom Countess Jeanne quickly had hanged. In 1226 the king agreed to free Infante Ferdinand, Count of Flanders. Count Ferrand died in 1233, and his daughter Marie soon after. In 1235, Jeanne granted a city charter by which city governors would be chosen each All Saint's Day by four commissioners chosen by the ruler. On 6 February 1236, she founded the Countess's Hospital (Hospice Comtesse). It was in her honour that the hospital of the Regional Medical University of Lille was named "Jeanne of Flanders Hospital" in the 20th century.
The Countess died in 1244 in theAbbey of Marquette, leaving no heirs. The rule of Flanders and Hainaut thus fell to her sister,Margaret II, Countess of Flanders, then to Margaret's son,Guy of Dampierre. Lille fell under the rule of France from 1304 to 1369, after theFranco-Flemish War (1297–1305).
On 17 February 1454, one year after thetaking of Constantinople by theTurks, Philip the Good organised aPantagruelian banquet at his Lille palace, the still-celebrated "Feast of the Pheasant". There the Duke and his court undertook an oath to Christianity.
The 16th and 17th centuries were marked by a boom in the regional textile industry, the Protestant revolts and outbreaks of theBlack Death.
Lille came under the rule of theCharles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1519. TheLow Countries fell to his eldest son,Philip II of Spain, in 1555. The city remained underSpanish Habsburg rule until 1668.Reformed Christianity first appeared in the area in 1542, and by 1555, the authorities were taking steps to suppress that form ofProtestantism. In 1566, the countryside around Lille was affected by theBeeldenstorm.[12] In 1578, theHurlus, a group of Protestant rebels, stormed the castle of the Counts of Mouscron. They were removed four months later by a CatholicWallon regiment, and they tried several times between 1581 and 1582 to take the city of Lille, all in vain. The Hurlus were notably held back by the legendaryJeanne Maillotte.
Also in 1581, at the call ofElizabeth I of theKingdom of England, the north of theSeventeen Provinces, having gained a Protestant majority, successfully revolted and formed theDutch Republic. The war brought or exacerbated periods of famine and plague (the last in 1667–1679).[13]
The first printer to set up shop in Lille was Antoine Tack in 1594. The 17th century saw the building of new institutions: anIrish College in 1610, a Jesuit college in 1611, an Augustinian college in 1622,almshouses or hospitals such as the Maison des Vieux hommes in 1624 and the Bonne et Forte Maison des Pauvres in 1661, and of aMont-de-piété in 1626.[14]
Unsuccessful French attacks on the city were launched in 1641 and 1645.[13] In 1667,Louis XIV successfully laidsiege to Lille, resulting in it becoming French in 1668 under theTreaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, provoking discontent among the citizens of the prosperous city. A number of important public works undertaken between 1667 and 1670, such as whenSébastien Le Prestre, Marquis of Vauban build theCitadel of Lille, or the creation of the quartiers of Saint-André and la Madeleine, enabled the French king to gradually gain the confidence of his new subjects in Lille, some of whom continued to feel Flemish, but they had always spoken the RomancePicard language.
In 1708, during theWar of the Spanish Succession, theGrand Alliance capturedcaptured Lille. For five years, from 1708 to 1713, the Dutch continued to occupy the city. Throughout the 18th century, Lille remained a profoundly Catholic city. It took little part in theFrench Revolution, but there were riots and the destruction of churches. In 1790, the city held its first municipal elections.
In 1792, in the aftermath of the French Revolution, theAustrians, then in the United Provinces, laid siege to Lille. The "Column of the Goddess", erected in 1842 in the "Grand-Place" (officially namedPlace du Général-de-Gaulle), is a tribute to the city's resistance, led byMayorFrançois André-Bonte [fr]. Although Austrian artillery destroyed many houses and the main church of the city, the city did not surrender, and the Austrian Army left after eight days.
The city continued to grow and, by 1800, had some 53,000 residents, leading to Lille becoming the seat of the Norddépartement in 1804. In 1846, a railway connecting Paris and Lille was built. In the early 19th century,Napoleon I'scontinental blockade against the United Kingdom led to Lille's textile industry developing even more fully. The city was known for its cotton while the nearby towns ofRoubaix andTourcoing worked wool. Leisure activities were thoroughly organised in 1858 for the 80,000 inhabitants. Cabarets or taverns for the working class numbered 1,300, or one for every three houses. At that time the city counted 63 drinking and singing clubs, 37 clubs for card players, 23 for bowling, 13 for skittles, and 18 for archery. The churches likewise have their social organizations. Each club had a long roster of officers, and a busy schedule of banquets festivals and competitions.[15] In 1853,Alexandre Desrousseaux composed his lullaby "P'tit quinquin".
In 1858, Lille annexed the adjacent towns ofEsquermes,Fives, Moulins-Lille andWazemmes.[16] Lille's population was 158,000 in 1872, growing to over 200,000 by 1891. In 1896 Lille became the first city in France to be led by a socialist,Gustave Delory.
By 1912, Lille's population stood at 217,000. The city profited from theIndustrial Revolution, particularly via coal and thesteam engine. The entire region grew wealthy thanks to its mines and textile industry.
Lille's occupation by the Germans began on 13 October 1914 after a ten-day siege and heavy shelling, which destroyed 882 apartment and office blocks and 1,500 houses, mostly around the railway station and in the centre. By the end of October, the city was being run by German authorities. Because Lille was only 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the battlefield, German troops passed through the city regularly on their way to and from the front. As a result, occupied Lille became a place for the hospitalisation and the treatment of wounded soldiers as well as a place for soldiers' relaxation and entertainment. Many buildings, homes and businesses were requisitioned to those ends.[17]
Lille was liberated by the Allies on 17 October 1918, when GeneralWilliam Birdwood and his troops were welcomed by joyous crowds. The general was made an honorary citizen of the city of Lille on 28 October.
The only[citation needed] audio recording known to have been made during World War I was recorded near Lille in October 1918. The two-minute recording captured the Royal Garrison Artillery conducting a gas shell bombardment.[18]
Lille was also the hunting ground of the German World War I flying aceMax Immelmann, who was nicknamed "the Eagle of Lille".
From 1931, Lille felt the repercussions of theGreat Depression, and by 1935, a third of the city's population lived in poverty. In 1936, the city's mayor,Roger Salengro, becameMinister of the Interior of thePopular Front but eventually killed himself after right-wing groups led a slanderous campaign against him.
During theBattle of France, Lille was besieged by German forces for several days. When Belgium was invaded, the citizens of Lille, still haunted by the events of World War I, began to flee the city in large numbers. Lille was part of the zone under control of the German commander in Brussels, and was never controlled by theVichy government inFrance. Lille was instead controlled under themilitary administration in Northern France. Thedépartements of Nord andPas-de-Calais (with the exception of the coast, notablyDunkirk) were for the most part liberated from 1 to 5 September 1944, by British, Canadian and Polish troops. On 3 September, German troops began to leave Lille out of fear of the British, who were on their way from Brussels. The city was liberated by a British force consisting largely of tanks.[19]
Rationing came to an end in 1947, and by 1948, normality had returned to Lille.
In 1967, the Chamber of Commerce of Lille, Roubaix and Tourcoing were joined, and in 1969 theCommunauté urbaine de Lille (Lille urban community) was created, linking 87communes with Lille.
Throughout the 1960s and the 1970s, the region was faced with some problems after the decline of the coal, mining and textile industries. From the early 1980s, the city began to turn itself more towards theservice sector.
Pierre Mauroy served as Mayor of Lille for 28 years from 1973 to 2001. Mauroy was Prime Minister for part of the term of Francois Mitterrand.
In 1983, theVAL, the world's first automatedrapid transit underground network, opened. In 1993, a high-speedTGV train line was opened connecting Paris with Lille in one hour. This, with the opening of theChannel Tunnel in 1994 and the arrival of theEurostar train put Lille at the centre of a triangle connecting Paris, London and Brussels.
Work on Euralille, an urban remodelling project, began in 1991. The Euralille Centre was opened in 1994, and the remodeled district is now full of parks and modern buildings containing offices, shops and apartments. In 1994 the "Grand Palais" was also opened for the general public, which is free for the public to enter on the first Sunday of every month.
Lille can be described as having a temperateoceanic climate; summers normally do not reach high average temperatures, but winters can fall below freezing temperatures, though with averages still above the freezing mark. Precipitation is plentiful year round.
The table below gives average temperatures and precipitation levels for the 1991–2020 reference period.
Climate data for Lille (LIL), elevation: 47 m (154 ft), 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1944–present
Lille is noted for its air pollution, with a 2018 study attributing 1,700 deaths per year in the agglomeration of Lille to pollution. In 2018, Lille held France's record pollution peaks.[24]
The population data in the table and graph to the left below refer to the commune of Lille proper in its borders since 2000, i.e. a municipal territory of 35 km2 (14 sq mi). This includes the former communes annexed by the commune of Lille:Esquermes,Fives, Moulins-Lille, andWazemmes in 1858,Hellemmes-Lille in 1977, andLomme in 2000.[16]
The Lillemetropolitan area (table to the right below), which is much larger than the small commune of Lille proper, covers a territory of 1,666 km2 (643 sq mi) (French part of the metropolitan area only) and had a population of 1,515,061 in 2020 (Jan. census).[5]
Population of the commune of Lille (35 km2) (within 2020 borders)
A former majormechanical,food industry and textile manufacturing centre as well as a retail and finance center, Lille is the largest city of a conurbation, built like a network of cities: Lille,Roubaix, Tourcoing andVilleneuve-d'Ascq. The conurbation forms theMétropole Européenne de Lille which is France's fourth-largest urban conglomeration with a 2016 population of over 1.15 million.[27]
For centuries, Lille, a city of merchants, has displayed a wide range of incomes: great wealth and poverty have lived side by side, especially until the end of the 1800s. This contrast was noted byVictor Hugo in 1851 in his poemLes Châtiments: « Caves de Lille ! on meurt sous vos plafonds de pierre ! » ("Cellars of Lille! We die under your stone ceilings!")
Employment in Lille has switched over half a century from a predominant industry to tertiary activities and services. Services account for 91% of employment in 2006.
Lille features an array of architectural styles with various amounts of Flemish influence, including the use of brown and red brick. In addition, many residential neighborhoods, especially in Greater Lille, consist of attached two- to three-storey houses aligned in a row, with narrow gardens in the back. These architectural attributes, many uncommon in France, help make Lille a transition in France to neighboring Belgium, as well as nearby Netherlands and England, where the presence of brick, as well as row houses or theterraced house is much more prominent.
Lille hosts an annualbraderie on the first weekend in September.[33] Its origins are thought to date back to the twelfth century and between two and three million visitors are drawn into the city. It is one of the largest gatherings of France and the largestflea market in Europe.
Many of the roads in the inner city (including much of the old town) are closed and local shops, residents and traders set up stalls in the street. The food of choice during the braderie is Moules frites, or mussels with french fries.
TheMétropole Européenne de Lille has a mixed mode public transport system, which is considered one of the most modern in the whole of France. It comprises buses, trams and a driverlesslight metro system, all of which are operated under the Transpole name. TheLille Metro is a VAL system (véhicule automatique léger = light automated vehicle) that opened on 16 May 1983, becoming the first automatic light metro line in the world. The system has two lines, with a total length of 45 kilometres (28 miles) and 60 stations.[34] The tram system consists of two interurban tram lines, connecting central Lille to the nearby communities of Roubaix and Tourcoing, and has 45 stops. Sixty-eight urban bus routes cover the metropolis, 8 of which reach into Belgium.[35]
Lille is an important junction in the Europeanhigh-speed rail network. It lies on the Eurostar line to London (80-minute journey). The French TGV network also puts it only 1 hour from Paris and 38 minutes from Brussels[36] and connects it to other major centres in France such as Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse. Lille has two railway stations next to each other:Lille-Europe station (Gare de Lille-Europe), which primarily serves high-speed trains and international services (Eurostar), andLille-Flandres station (Gare de Lille-Flandres), which primarily serves lower-speed regional trains and regionalBelgian trains.
Lille Lesquin International Airport is 15 minutes from the city centre by car (11 km). In terms of shipping, it ranks fourth, with almost 38,000 tonnes of freight which pass through each year.[37] Its passenger traffic, around 1.2 million in 2010, is modest due to the proximity to Brussels, Charleroi, and Paris-CDG airports. The airport mostly connects other French and European cities (some withlow-cost airlines).
Lille is the third-largest French river port after Paris andStrasbourg. The river Deûle is connected to regional waterways with over 680 km (423 mi) of navigable waters. The Deûle connects to Northern Europe via the riverScarpe and the river Scheldt (towards Belgium and the Netherlands), and internationally via theLys (to Dunkerque andCalais).
TheArts et Métiers ParisTech, an engineering graduate school of industrial and mechanical engineering, settled in Lille in 1900. This campus is one of the eight Teaching and Research Center (CER) of the school. Its creation was decided byPierre-Nicolas Legrand de Lérant.
TheUniversité Catholique de Lille was founded in 1875. Today it has law, economics, medicine, physics faculties and schools. Institutions of higher education affiliated with the Catholic University of Lille include:
École des hautes études commerciales du nord (EDHEC) founded in 1906. EDHEC's MSc Financial Markets program was ranked #1 worldwide by Financial Times in 2017; making it one of the most prestigious financial study programs globally.
Institut catholique d'arts et métiers (ICAM) founded in 1898, ranked 20th among engineering schools, with the specificity of graduating polyvalent engineers.
IESEG School of Management founded in 1964 (ranked 17th in the latest Financial Times global ranking of the 90 best masters in management, published on Monday 12 September 2016).[39]
Lille is also site of the University and Polytechnic Federation of Lille (Fédération Universitaire et Polytechnique de Lille), a large private educational university that includes a medical school, business school, law school, etc.
^"Belfries of Belgium and France".UNESCO World Heritage Centre. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Retrieved5 November 2021.
^RapportArchived 8 April 2008 at theWayback Machine L'Optimisation du réseau de formation initiale d'enseignement supérieur en région, rapport de M. Alain Lottin Au Conseil Economique et Social Régional Présenté lors de la séance plénière du 7 novembre 2006.
Codaccioni, Félix-Paul (1976).De l'inégalité sociale dans une grande ville industrielle, le drame de Lille de 1850 à 1914. Lille: Éditions Universitaires, Université de Lille 3.ISBN2-85939-041-3.
Collectif (1999).Lille, d'un millénaire à l'autre (Fayard ed.). Fayard.ISBN2-213-60456-8.
Despature, Perrine (2001).Le Patrimoine des Communes du Nord (Flohic ed.). Flohic.ISBN2-84234-119-8.
Duhamel, Jean-Marie (2004).Lille, Traces d'histoire. Les patrimoines. La Voix du Nord.ISBN2-84393-079-0.
Gérard, Alain (1991).Les grandes heures de Lille. Perrin.ISBN2-262-00743-8.
Legillon, Paulette; Dion, Jacqueline (1975).Lille : portrait d'une cité. Axial.
Lottin, Alain (2003).Lille – D'Isla à Lille-Métropole. Histoire des villes du Nord. La Voix du Nord.ISBN2-84393-072-3.
Maitrot, Eric; Cary, Sylvie (2007).Lille secret et insolite. Les Beaux Jours.ISBN978-2-35179-011-3.
Marchand, Philippe (2003).Histoire de Lille. Jean-Paul Gisserot.ISBN2-87747-645-6.
Monnet, Catherine (2004).Lille : portrait d'une ville. Jacques Marseille.ISBN2-914967-02-0.
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