Tourcoing

Tourcoing (French pronunciation: ​[tuʁkwɛ̃]; Dutch: Toerkonje, pronounced [turkɔnjə]; West Flemish: Terkoeje; Picard: Tourco) is a city in northern France on the Belgian border. It is designated municipally as a commune within the department of Nord. Located to the north-northeast of Lille, adjacent to Roubaix, Tourcoing is the chef-lieu of two cantons and the fourth largest city in the French region of Hauts-de-France ranked by population with about 94,000 inhabitants.

Tourcoing
Commune
Tourcoing Town Hall
Flag
Coat of arms
Location of Tourcoing
Tourcoing
Tourcoing
Coordinates: 50°43′26″N 3°09′40″E
CountryFrance
RegionHauts-de-France
DepartmentNord
ArrondissementLille
CantonTourcoing-1
Tourcoing-2
IntercommunalityMétropole Européenne de Lille
Government
 • Mayor (2020–2026) Doriane Bécue (DVD)
Area
1
15.19 km2 (5.86 sq mi)
Population
 (2017-01-01)[1]
97,368
 • Density6,400/km2 (17,000/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code
59599 /59200
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Together with the cities of Lille, Roubaix, Villeneuve-d'Ascq and eighty-six other communes,[2] Tourcoing is part of four-city-centred metropolitan area inhabited by more than 1.1 million people: the Métropole Européenne de Lille.[3][4][5] To a greater extent, Tourcoing belongs to a vast conurbation formed with the Belgian cities of Mouscron, Kortrijk and Tournai, which gave birth to the first European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation in January 2008, Lille–Kortrijk–Tournai with an aggregate of just over 2 million inhabitants.[6]

Main sights
  • Church of St Christopher (15th-16th centuries), considered one of the most beautiful Neo-Gothic edifices of Nord. In stone and brickwork, it has an 80-metre (262-foot) high bell tower with more than 80 bells.
  • Hospice de Havre, founded in 1260. The cloister and the chapel date from the seventeenth century.
  • Hôtel de ville (1885), in Napoleon III-style.
  • Jardin botanique de Tourcoing, a botanical garden and arboretum.

History
Place de la Victoire, Tourcoing.

The city was the site of a significant victory for France during the French Revolutionary Wars. Marshal Charles Pichegru and his generals Joseph Souham and Jean Moreau defeated a combined force of British and Austrian troops in the Battle of Tourcoing on 29 Floréal II (18 May 1794).[7]

Transport

The Gare de Tourcoing is a railway station offering direct connections to Lille and Paris (high speed trains), Kortrijk, Ostend, Ghent and Antwerp. The town was formerly served by the Somain-Halluin Railway.

Notable people

Guilbert de Lannoy (1545-c. 1601) and his son Jean de Lannoy (1575-c. 1605) were Protestants from Tourcoing who resettled in Leiden, Holland. Jean's son, Philip Delano (c. 1603 - c. 1681-82; born Philipe de la Noye or Philipe de Lannoy), was an early emigrant to the Plymouth Colony and progenitor of the prominent Delano family, which counts among its descendants prominent figures in American history, including president Franklin Roosevelt.[8]

Church of St Christopher

International relations
See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in France

Twin towns - sister cities

Tourcoing is twinned with:[9]

Other forms of cooperation

See also

References
  1. "Populations légales 2017". INSEE. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  2. Lecluyse, Frédérick (December 16, 2016). "MEL : on prend les mêmes ou presque et on recommence" [MEL: let's take hardly the same ones and start over]. Nord Éclair (in French). Roubaix, F: La Voix du Nord, S.A. 73 (349, ROUBAIX & SES ALENTOURS): 4. ISSN 1277-1422. Bois-Grenier, Le Maisnil, Fromelles, Aubers et Radinghem-en-Weppes. Soit 6000 habitants supplémentaires pour une MEL qui compte désormais 90 communes…
  3. Ezelin, Perrine (April 2, 2015). "European Metropole of Lille Local Action Plan" (PDF). Edinburgh, UK: CSI Europe URBACT. p. 3. Retrieved 2015-07-22.
  4. URBACT (May 29, 2015). "Lille". Edinburgh, UK. Retrieved 2015-07-22.
  5. Neveu, Clarisse (December 15, 2016). "Métropole Européenne de Lille : les vice-présidents et conseillers métropolitains délégués élus" [European Metropolis of Lille : elected vice-presidents and metropolitan delegate-councilors]. MEL. Communiqué de presse (in French). Lille, F: Métropole Européenne de Lille. Retrieved 2016-12-18. La fusion, effective au 1er janvier 2017, acte un élargissement historique du territoire de la Métropole Européenne de Lille, passant de 85 à 90 communes pour près d'1.2 million d'habitants.
  6. Durand, Frédéric (May 12, 2015). "Theoretical framework of the cross border space production the case of the Eurometropolis Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai" (PDF). Luxembourg, L: EUBORDERSCAPES. p. 18. Retrieved 2015-07-22.
  7. Soboul, Albert (1975). The French Revolution 1787–1799. USA: Vintage. p. 404. ISBN 0-394-71220-X.
  8. "Pilgrim Village Families Sketch: Phillip Delano/De la Noye". American Ancestors. New England Historic Genealogical Society. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
  9. "Villes Amies". tourcoing.fr (in French). Tourcoing. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
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