Lille

Lila or Lille [lil] (?·i) is a city in the north of France, capital of the region of Alta France, and located very close to the border with Belgium, which is located on the banks of the river Deûle, a tributary of the river Lys.

According to 2019 data, Lille has a municipal population of &&&&&&&&&0236400.&&& &&0236,400 inhabitants, and its metropolitan area, which includes cities such as Villeneuve-d'Ascq, Roubaix and Tourcoing, has a population of &;&&&&&&&01164716.&&&&&01,164,716 inhabitants, being the fourth largest in France.

Situated between Paris, London and Brussels, Lille is a European economic center, which has developed considerably since the 1990s, especially with the construction of the Euralille business district and the arrival of High Speed Trains and Eurostars. With &&&&&&&&&0110000.&&&&&0110,000 students, Lille is also the third largest university city in France, after Paris and Lyon. It was also the European Capital of Culture in 2004 and since then, it is qualified as "Ville d'art et d'histoire" (City of art and history).

Etymology

The current city of Lille developed from the agglutination of various population centers located at the end of the navigable part of the banks of the Deûle river. The name of the city comes from the denomination L'île (in Spanish, La Isla), which refers to the location of the city on a surface of land firm surrounded by old fluvial swampy areas, which gave the appearance of the city being located on an island between marshes. The city's important textile industry gave rise to the name lile (Lille in Spanish), a name for a colored woolen fabric of Scottish origin, typical of local industrial production..

History

Old Age

The first remains found in present-day Lille date from around 2000 BC. C., when, after the invention of agriculture, some settlers settled on the banks of the Deûle River and built farms and farms. The excavations carried out in areas close to the river have made it possible to find remains of those settlements, dating from the Bronze and Iron Ages, and corresponding to the Celtic peoples who occupied the entire European Atlantic coast.

After the Roman conquest of Gaul, the settlements on the Deûle River grew, although what we know today as Lille was no more than a scattered group of population centers linked by secondary roads. With the Romanization process, the inhabitants of the area adopted the Gallo-Roman culture. At the end of the century V a. C., a nucleus located on the eastern bank of the river began to grow slowly, being the densest of all the surrounding populations. In the future, this location would become the germ of the future city.

Middle Ages

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the location of the eastern bank of the Deûle gradually brought together the inhabited areas around it. The origin of the city of Lille is narrated by the medieval legend of "Lydéric and Phinaert". This legend tells that Lydéric was the son of Salvaert and Ermengaert, princes of Dijon. When they were going to England to father their future son, they were arrested by Phinaert, giant and lord of the lands of present-day Lille, who also executed Salvaert. Ermengaert was able to flee and, before passing away, she gave birth to Lydéric, who had to grow up with a hermit, fleeing from the giant. When Lydéric grew up, he murdered Phinaert in revenge for the death of his parents, and received the giant's lands, where he founded in 640 the city of L'Ile, from which according to legend it derives the name of Lille.

Throughout the Middle Ages, present-day Lille was part of the County of Flanders, a vassal territory of the Frankish kingdom, which brought together the ancient Roman cities of Arras, Cambrai and Boulogne; and even became its capital. Due to its strategic location, at the end of the navigable part of Deûle, the nucleus of L'Isle gradually gained commercial importance, with the construction of a river port. From 830 to 910, the Vikings plundered the cities of the Flanders region, including L'Isle. For this reason, the counts of Flanders, rulers of the city, undertook to fortify the city. The first document that mentions the current name of Lille dates from the year 1066, in which the parish of Saint-Maurice, the oldest church in the town, is also mentioned. Already from the Early Middle Ages, Lille stood out for its long tradition of textile crafts. With the establishment of the court of the counts of Flanders, the city acquired greater economic importance and experienced greater demographic growth. In 1144 the parish of Saint-Sauveur (San Salvador) would be constituted, which would be the origin of the future cathedral of the city.

Although the region was dependent on the kingdom of France, the county of Flanders maintained, for economic reasons, very close ties with England and the Holy Roman Empire. For this reason, and in order to maintain hegemony in Flanders, the French King Felipe II Augusto intended to occupy the region. Due to French interests, the King of England John the Landless, the German Emperor Otto IV and Ferdinand of Portugal, Count of Flanders, formed a coalition against France. Philip II Augustus besieged and occupied Lille in 1213, and the conflict ended in 1214 with the French victory at the Battle of Bouvines. The result of the war allowed to maintain the county of Flanders, again under French hegemony. During the 13th century, Lille reached the &&&& &&&&&&030000.&&&&&030,000 inhabitants, and its economic importance increased thanks to the celebration of a regional market, and above all because of the thriving local cloth industry, which attracted foreign merchants from all over Europe. This situation made the city a coveted center for both France and England, who fought over Lille during the Hundred Years' War.

Starting at the end of the 14th century (1369), and in the context of the Hundred Years' War, the city was governed by the Dukes of Burgundy, who proclaimed themselves Counts of Flanders by the marriage between Duke Felipe II the Bold and Countess Marguerite de Mâle. Under Burgundian rule, and during the duchy of Felipe III the Good himself, the reconstruction and repopulation of the city was undertaken, which had suffered severe damage caused by wars and plague epidemics. Among other works, the Burgundian duke ordered the construction of the Rihour palace, the city's new court. Maria de Borgoña, granddaughter of Philip III the Good and sole successor to the duchy, married Maximilian I, future Holy Roman Emperor. Due to this union, the city of Lille and the county of Flanders as a whole passed into the hands of the Habsburgs, within the lordship of the Netherlands. The result of this union was born in 1478 Felipe I de Habsbugo, better known as El Hermoso, who would reign in the city between 1482 and 1506. During this period, of relative calm, Lille began to develop an industry of light fabrics, to the detriment of cloth production.

Modern Age

Map of Lille of 1641 in Flandria Illustrata Antonio Sanderus.

By decision of his father Maximilian I, Felipe married Juana I of Castile, daughter of the Catholic Monarchs. With this succession of marriage links, Lille and the rest of the county of Flanders, as well as the territories of Burgundy and Brabant, would finally pass into the hands of the Habsburg family. Thus, Carlos de Habsburgo ( Carlos I of Spain ) counted it among his domains, asserting to the monarch his title of Lord of the Netherlands. The city was ruled by the Habsburgs until the reign of Philip IV, in the first half of the 17th century. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the city lived through troubled periods, being devastated on various occasions by plague epidemics and religious wars between Catholics and Protestants, although it was able to maintain its textile and commercial wealth. The heritage of the reign of the House of Habsburg in the city is the building of the Old Stock Exchange, in 1652, which reflects the economic splendor that the city lived at that time; in addition to other civil buildings, of evident Flemish Renaissance style.

In the early second half of the 17th century, the French King Louis XIV initiated an expansionist policy towards the north and eastern France. Luis XIV claimed the territory of Flanders, in Spanish hands, asserting the succession rights of his wife María Teresa of Austria, daughter of Felipe IV of Spain. With these claims, the Return War would begin in 1667, which would end with the French occupation of the County of Flanders. The French king besieged and took the city of Lille on August 28, which was occupied after seventeen days of resistance. Now united in the French kingdom, Lille would become the capital of northern France.

Because of its strategic location, very close to the border with the Spanish Netherlands, and its economic importance, Louis XIV ordered it to be fortified, four months after having conquered it. The task was entrusted to Sébastien Le Prestre, Marquis de Vauban, engineer and military architect. Vauban reinforced the city walls and directed the construction of the citadel of Lille, in the north-western corner of the city.

Under French rule, the city experienced a century of economic stability, although it was occupied by the Dutch army between 1708 and 1713, within the context of the War of Spanish Succession.

Contemporary Age

Siege of Lille by the Austrians.

Lille under the French Revolution

At the end of the XVIII century, the local industry, basically based on the production of textiles, began to diversify, introducing lace, ceramics and food manufactures, since Lille's textile industry, which could not compete with the thriving and mechanized English manufacturing, experienced a period of economic crisis. After the French Revolution, in 1789, the local bourgeoisie would dominate the city, without any major riots taking place in Lille. Faced with the foreign threat to overthrow the revolution, the French National Assembly declared war on Austria, an absolutist power, in 1792. With the Netherlands in Austrian hands during that period, Lille found itself on the front line between France and Austria, under constant bombardment. From his resistance against the Austrians arose the expression that "Lille has a well-deserved homeland".

Industrial Revolution

During the first half of the 19th century, Lille's textile industry took off again, after suffering a revolutionary hiatus. The city would specialize mainly in the production of cotton and linen fabrics. Lille became the largest industrial center in France, and its garment manufacturing became one of the largest in the world. The metallurgical industry was also developed, thanks to the discovery of large coal deposits near the area; and the railway industry. In 1846 the railway arrived in the city, with the Paris-Lille link, and soon after it became a railway junction of notable importance. The industrial revolution skyrocketed the population of Lille, from &&&&&&&&&&075000.&&& &&075,000 inhabitants in 1850, to have &&&&&&&&&0220000.&&&&&0220,000 in 1901. This fact led to increased pollution and unsanitary conditions in the city, so that nineteenth-century sanitation and urbanization projects were carried out. In 1896 the University of Lille would be created, and in this period the city began to experience the commercial development of the city.

In this context of industrialization, wide contrasts emerge between the local bourgeois business community and the working population. Due to the industrial nature of the city and its good communication with Paris, the proletarian classes quickly embraced socialism. From the end of the XIX century the city council would be governed by socialist mayors.

Interwar Period

Horses killed during the invasion of Lille by the German army in 1914.

As a result of its location on the Franco-German front during World War I, Lille was severely hit by bombardments by the French and German armies. The city was quickly occupied by the Germans, until it was recaptured by the British army in the summer of 1918, after heavy trench warfare.

Starting in 1927, the city council of Lille undertook a plan to restructure the city, under the mayoralty of the socialist Roger Salengro. The plan included the demolition of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods, as well as the construction of the Lille International Fair, a river port and the Marcq-en-Baroeul airport.

During the 1930s, the city entered a severe economic crisis derived from the Crash of 1929. The local crisis worsened in 1936 with the suicide of the mayor himself, Roger Salengro, and with the outbreak of World War II. The Nazi troops, within the scene of the blitzkrieg, decided to besiege the city, surrounding it on May 27, 1940 and occupying it on June 1. During the German occupation, Lille, like the rest of Nord-Pas de Calais, was controlled from the German administration in Brussels. In September 1944, the allied troops liberated the city after successive bombardments.

Since 1945

Eurostar at Lille Europe station.

Lille was once again destroyed by the damage caused in World War II. The city did not fully recover its industrial and commercial activity until five years after the world conflict. In 1951 the International Textile Fair was held, which marked the local economic resurgence. From the fifties, the city was expanding from the suburbs. In 1967 the Paris-Lille motorway was completed, in addition to establishing, at the request of the socialist mayor Auguste Laurent, the Lille-Roubaix-Tourcoing chamber of commerce, with the intention of creating one of the largest commercial and industrial centers in Europe. In 1977 the nearby town of Hellemmes would join this conurbation. It is in this period that the local industrial sector will enter into a definitive crisis, which will lead to the tertiarization of the city. This phenomenon will mean a profound change in the economic pulse of Lille. In 1983 Lille, Hellemmes and Villeneuve d'Ascq were connected with the VAL metro line (the first automatic metro line in the world). Today the four nuclei of the urban community (Lille, Roubaix, Tourcoing and Villeneuve d'Ascq) are connected to the VAL, the largest automatic network in the world that reaches as far as the Belgian border.

During the 1990s, Lille will assume a vital economic role in the new European community, with the rail connection to the TGV in 1993 and the inauguration of the Eurotunnel under the English Channel in 1994. Mayor Pierre Mauroy plans and builds a new financial and commercial district in the city, called Euralille, marking the restructuring of the city at the end of the XX century. From 2001 to the present, the socialist Martine Aubry governs the city. In 2004, the city was named the cultural capital of Europe. It should also be said that the city was a candidate to celebrate the 2004 Olympic Games, without actually achieving it.

Today, Lille forms one of the largest conurbations in France and continues to maintain its economic weight in the European Union. Its urban community is the most populous of the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis, of which it has been a part since its formation in 2008.

Administration and politics

European metropolis of Lille

European Union Railway Agency

Climate

Average Lille climate parameters (1981–2010)
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Temp. max. abs. (°C)	15.2	19	24.8	27.9	31.7	34.8	41.5	37.1	35.1	27.8	20.3	15.9	41.5
Average temperature (°C)	6.0	6.9	10.6	14.1	17.9	20.6	23.3	23.3	19.7	15.2	9.9	6.4	14.5
Average temperature (°C)	3.6	4.1	7.1	9.7	13.4	16.2	18.6	18.4	15.4	11.6	7.1	4.2	10.8
Temp. medium (°C)	1.2	1.3	3.6	5.4	8.9	11.7	13.8	13.6	11.2	8.1	4.4	1.9	7.1
Temp. min. abs. (°C)	-19.5	-17.8	-10.5	-4.7	-2.3	0.0	3.4	3.9	1.2	-4.4	-7.8	-17.3	-19.5
Total precipitation (mm)	60.5	47.4	58.3	50.7	64.0	64.6	68.5	62.8	61.6	66.2	70.1	67.8	742.5
Precipitation days (≥ 1 mm)	11.7	9.6	11.4	10.1	10.6	10.0	9.8	9.2	10.1	11.0	12.6	11.3	127.4
Days of snowfall (≥ 1 mm)	4.9	4.1	3.2	1.3	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.8	3.8	19.2
Hours of sun	65.5	70.7	121.1	172.2	193.9	206.0	211.3	199.5	151.9	114.4	61.4	49.6	1617.5
Relative humidity (%)	88	85	82	79	78	79	78	78	83	87	89	90	83
Source No. 1: Meteo France
Source No. 2: Infoclimat.fr (humidity, snowy days 1961–1990)

Demographics

Transportation

Education

Universities

In the 16th century, thanks to the boost given by the Spanish monarchy to education in France, several universities were created in Lille. The University of Lille-Douai, is a public university founded in 1562. Since 1971, the public university of Lille (Université Lille Nord de France) is divided into three campuses on the outskirts of Lille:

• Campus Lille I: (USTL - Sciences and Techniques), on the campus "La cité scientifique" (the scientific city).
• Campus Lille II: (Right, Health, Business Administration and Sports), is located in the south, south-east of the city of Lille.
• Campus Lille III: (History, Letras et Artes), whose campus is in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, the neighborhood of " Pont de bois".

Lille is also home to the prestigious Sciences Po Lille school, a training house for the high French political elite. Admission to Sciences Po Lille is done through a highly selective competition (between 5.00% and 7.00% of pass rates).

In the last part of the 19th century, specifically in 1875, the Catholic University of Lille (Letters and Natural Sciences, Law, Economics and Management, Sciences and Techniques, Medicine and Theology) was created.

In 2007, Lille was the third city in France in number of university students with more than 95,000 in its metropolitan area, behind only Paris and Lyon and about the same as Toulouse. In 2003, a student census revealed that there are more than 144,000 students in the city, where 98,000 are in university, 29,000 in professional training studies and 17,000 in institutes.

The old faculty of letters.

Catholic University of Lille.

Colleges of general engineers

• École centrale de Lille
• ENSAM (National School of Arts and Crafts)
• École spéciale de mécanique et d'électricité
• HEI (high engineering studies)
• ICAM (Catholic Institute of Arts)
• Polytech'Lille (Lille Polytechnic School, formerly called EUDILnt EUDIL)
• Institute of Polytechnic Studies of Lille.

Colleges of specialized engineers

• ENIC (Télécom Lille 1)
• ENSAIT (National School of Arts and Textile Industries)
• ENSCL (Lille Chemistry School)
• École pour l'informatique et les nouvelles technologies
• ESJ (Lille Senior Journalism School)
• ESTIT (high school of industrial and textile techniques)
• ISA (University Institute of Agriculture)
• ISEN (University Institute of Electronics and Numericals)
• IST (University Institute of Technology)
• ENSAPL (National School of Architecture and Landscape of Lille)

Trade schools

• L' ESPAS Tecobio (ESPAS Tecobio)
• Edhec Business School
• L'ESA (Lille Business School)
• SKEMA Business School
• IÉSEG School of Management
• Institut supérieur européen de gestion group
• Institut supérieur européen de formation par l'action

Culture

Urban planning and architecture

Citadel of Vauban

The citadel of Lille with the shape of a five-point star.

The citadel of Lille was designed by the military engineer Sébastien Le Prestre, Marquis de Vauban, four months after the French occupation of the city in 1667, by order of King Louis XIV, with the aim of forming a defensive line (known in French as pré carré). The citadel was built, between 1667 and 1670, in the northwest of the city in an area of marshes of the Deûle river, approximately 1700 hectares. This situation was used to build a system of floods and water channels, which would form part of the defense of the site, by surrounding it. Due to the magnitude of the project, in which Vauban revealed his logical approaches to military defense, the lowering of labor and material costs, and the importance of artillery in the design of flush fortifications, the same architect defined his work as the "queen of citadels", and is in fact considered his masterpiece. Vauban, who had been appointed General Commissioner of Fortifications of the French army, and who had been in charge of reinforcing strategic positions on the French borders, proposed the construction of polygonal fortifications in the citadel, according to the needs of defensive artillery, accidents natural and orography of the land where the work was located. The citadel required more than ten thousand workers for its construction, and it is estimated that more than 60 million bricks and 3.3 million granite blocks were used, reinforced with stoneware.

The fortification constitutes an authentic military city within Lille, made up of civil buildings (warehouses, a chapel and various shops) and military (arsenals, residences for soldiers, prisons, and the building of the military governor), which are distributed in bastions that form a five-pointed star, positioned concentrically to the main square, in the center of the citadel. Vauban arranged a defensive perimeter made up of ditches, outposts, crescent-shaped walls and underground paths, which constituted an impenetrable series of obstacles for the enemy. The citadel was taken during the War of the Spanish Succession by a combined army of English, Austrian and Dutch, after more than a month of siege. From the middle of the XIX century, the citadel lost its military character and was converted into a huge urban park.

Cathedral of Lille

Cathedral.

Church of Saint Mauritius (Lille)

Opera of Lille

Lille Opera.

Lille synagogue

Museums

Charles de Gaulle Home

Charles de Gaulle's home.

Botanical Garden of Lille

Botanic garden.

LaM

Museum of Natural History of Lille

Natural History Museum of Lille.

Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille

Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille.

Music

HK " Les Saltimbanks "

Events

Festival Séries Mania

Gastronomy

Mimolette

Mimolette.

Literary and film references

The graphic novel Blue is a warm color, by Julie Maroh, and the film The Life of Adèle, based on it, are set in the city.

Sports

The city's soccer club, Lille OSC, participates in Ligue 1, France's top soccer division. It plays its home matches at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy, whose capacity exceeds 50,000.

Predecessor: Graz

European Capital of Culture along with Genoa 2004

Successor: Cork