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Lille – History of the
city
LEGEND
According to a very popular legend,
in the year 620, the prince of Dijon, Salvaert, made his way to
the Kingdom of England with his pregnant wife, Ermengaert. While
traveling through Flanders,
they fell into a trap laid by the local lord, the giant Phinaert.
Phinaert had the prince and his men killed. Ermengaert fled and found
refuge in the forest, at a hermit's home,where she gave birth to a
son. She then died, leaving the baby with the hermit, who gave him the
name Lydéric.
Lydéric soon learnt the truth
about his origins, and, as a youth, went in search of Phinaert. He
found him at the court of Dagobert I at Soissons.
Lydéric then killed Phinaert in a duel, thus avenging his parents' deaths.
Phinaert's lands were then given to Lydéric, and the young man founded the
city of Lille in the year 640.
 There is a sculpture of Lydéric and Phinaert on the wall at the base of Lille's belfry.
HISTORY
However, historically, the name Lille comes from the Latin
insula or l'Isla, meaning "the island", since the area was at one time
marshy. This name was used for the Count of Flanders' castle (Château du Buc), built on dry land in the middle of the marsh. The Count of Flanders controlled a number of old Roman cities and his territory
was in one of the richest and most properous regions of Europe. The
original inhabitants of this region were the Celts, then some Germanic
tribes arrived. From 830 until around 910, the Vikings invaded Flanders.
After the destruction caused by Norman and Hungarian
invasion, the eastern part of the region was conquered by local princes
and the city was created.
During the battle of
Bouvines (1214), Fernand of Portugal, ruler of Lille, was taken
prisoner. Following this, his wife, Countess Jeanne of Flanders,
governed alone and made Lille her primary residence. They
say she was well-loved by the residents of Lille, who by that time
numbered 10,000. She founded "L'hospice de la Comptesse"
(Countess' Hospital), which is still one of the most beautiful
buildings of the Old Town.
After her death,
Lille became part of the Duchy of Burgundy and turned into a very
prosperous town. A lot of important landmarks were built in this
period, like the Palais Rihour. At the death of the last duke of
Burgundy, Lille's destiny changed again. The city was ruled by the
Hapsburg family and it became part of the Spanish Netherlands.
In 1667, Lille was
conquered by king Louis XIV and it became French again. A number
of important public works were undertaken between 1667 and 1670, such as the
Citadel, (erected by
Vauban),
and the creation of the areas of Saint-André and la
Madeleine. A new district was formed, called "the quartier
royal", where nobles and dignitaries built their mansions.
During the
War of Succession with Spain,
Lille was
conquered by the Dutch but became French once and for all in
1713 with the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht.
The city then continued to grow, and,
after the
Revolution , a new liberal, dynamic and entrepreneurial
middle class rose to the top. Thanks to these new lords, Lille
became a great industrial power in the 19th century. Its main
industries were metalwork, chemistry and textiles. In fact, the entire
region grew wealthy thanks to the mines and to the textile
industry.
Around 1858, Lille
underwent major growth. It annexed the neighbouring communes of
Wazemmes, Esquermes, Moulins and Fives, thus tripling its surface
area and its population. Large avenues and vast squares were laid
out.
In July 1921, at the Pasteur
Institute in Lille, Albert Calmette and Camille Guérin
discovered the first antituberculosis vaccine. From 1931 onwards,
though, Lille felt the repercussions of the Great Depression, and by
1935 a third of the city's population lived in poverty. This poverty
continued throughout the 1960s and 70s, when the whole region was faced
with problems
after the decline of the coal, mining and textile industries. From
the start of the 1980s, the city began to turn itself more towards the
service sector: factories and workshops were replaced by offices
and
services
and, in a certain way, Lille seems to have rediscovered its
medieval role as a merchant city.
The Lille-Paris TGV link in 1993, as well as the creation of the new
Euralille district and the arrival of Eurostar in 1994, have played a big part in the resurrection of the city's economy.
Lille is now an important crossroads in the European high-speed rail network: it lies on the Eurostar line to London and the French TGV network to Paris, Brussels
and other major centres in France such as Marseille, Lyon, and
Toulouse. In 2004, Lille was designated European Capital of Culture.
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