Tourcoing

Tourcoing

Town hall

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Coat of arms
Tourcoing

Coordinates: 50°43′56″N 3°06′14″E / 50.7323°N 3.1040°E / 50.7323; 3.1040Coordinates: 50°43′56″N 3°06′14″E / 50.7323°N 3.1040°E / 50.7323; 3.1040
Country France
Region Hauts-de-France
Department Nord
Arrondissement Lille
Intercommunality Lille Métropole
Government
 • Mayor (2014-2020) Gerald Darmanin
Area1 15.19 km2 (5.86 sq mi)
Population (2012)2 92,707
 • Density 6,100/km2 (16,000/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
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.

2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Tourcoing (French pronunciation: ​[tuʁ.kwɛ̃]) is a city in northern France. It is designated municipally as a commune within the département 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.

Together with the cities of Lille, Roubaix, Villeneuve-d'Ascq and eighty-one other communes, Tourcoing is part of four-city-centred metropolitan area inhabited by around 1.1 million people: the European Metropolis of Lille.[1][2] 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.[3]


Main sights

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).[4]

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.[5]

Church of St Christopher

International relations

Twin towns – Sister cities

Tourcoing is twinned with:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ezelin, Perrine (April 2, 2015). "European Metropole of Lille Local Action Plan" (PDF). Edinburgh, UK: CSI Europe URBACT. p. 3. Retrieved 2015-07-22.
  2. ↑ URBACT (May 29, 2015). "Lille". Edinburgh, UK. Retrieved 2015-07-22.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ Soboul, Albert (1975). The French Revolution 1787–1799. USA: Vintage. p. 404. ISBN 0-394-71220-X.
  5. ↑ "Pilgrim Village Families Sketch: Phillip Delano/De la Noye". American Ancestors. New England Historic Genealogical Society. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
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