Rekkem is a section of the Belgian city of

Menen Menen (; french: Menin ; vls, Mêenn or ) is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Menen proper and the towns of Lauwe and Rekkem. The city is situated on the French/ ...

, in the province of

West Flanders ) , settlement_type = Province of Belgium , image_flag = Flag of West Flanders.svg , flag_size = , image_shield = Wapen van West-Vlaanderen.svg , shield_size = , image_map ...

. Until 1977, it was an independent municipality. It was called ''Retchème'' in Picard. In 1173, the village was still called Rekkem, similar to Reclinghem in

Artois Artois ( ; ; nl, Artesië; English adjective: ''Artesian'') is a region of northern France. Its territory covers an area of about 4,000 km2 and it has a population of about one million. Its principal cities are Arras (Dutch: ''Atrecht''), ...

and to Rijkegem (

Tielt Tielt (; french: Thielt) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the town of Tielt proper and the villages of Aarsele, Kanegem, and Schuiferskapelle. History Some traces of Gallo-Roman oc ...

), which were founded by the

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and s ...

''Rikiwulf'' in 876 .

Geography

Rekkem is on the frontier with

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

and borders Wallonia. It adjoins the localities of

, Lauwe, Aalbeke,

Mouscron Mouscron (; Dutch and vls, Moeskroen, ; Picard and Walloon: ''Moucron'') is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, along the border with the French city of Tourcoing, which is part of the Lille metropo ...

(part of the municipality), Neuville-en-Ferrain and

Halluin Halluin (; nl, Halewijn) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. Geography It is located at the north of the Métropole Européenne de Lille, on the Belgian border, contiguous with the Belgian town of Menen. Population Tr ...

The centre of Rekkem is located to the north of the territory while the village of Paradijs is located more to the south.

Languages

The last complete linguistic census of 1947 indicated that over one quarter of the population used French as the "Language exclusively or most frequently spoken".

Roads

The centre of the village is crossed by the N366 (''Moeskroenstraat'') that connects the centre of Menin and Mouscron. The Lauwestraat and the Priester Coulonstraat, connected to the National, are the link between Rekkem with Lauwe. The Dronckaertstraat (the former road between

Courtrai Kortrijk ( , ; vls, Kortryk or ''Kortrik''; french: Courtrai ; la, Cortoriacum), sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray ( ), is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It is the capital and larges ...

and

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the Nord ...

) and the A14 motorway (

European route E17 European route E17 passes through the following cities: * ** : Antwerp → Sint-Niklaas → Ghent → Kortrijk * ** : Tourcoing → Lille ** : Lille → Arras ** : Arras → Cambrai → Saint-Quentin → Laon → Reims ** : Reims → Châlo ...

) pass between the centre of Rekkem and the village of Paradijs.

History

In 1963, during the finalisation of the linguistic frontier, the hamlet of Risquons-Tout (0.39 km² - approximately 500 inhabitants) was transferred from the commune of Rekkem to the city of Mouscron.

Culture

The head office of the Flemish cultural association ''Stichting Ons Erfdeel'', as well as the editorial offices of the periodicals ''Ons Erfdell'', ''Septentrio'', ''The Low Countries'' and ''De Franse Nederlanden – Les Pays-Bas Français''. Jozef Deleu, writer and founder of ''Ons Erfdeel'', lives in Rekkem.

Curiosities

The parish church of Rekkem, the church of Saint Nicholas (''Sint-Niklaaskerk'') was built in the 12th century. It has been a classified monument since 1939. {{coord, 50.7844, N, 3.1628, E, source:wikidata, display=title Populated places in West Flanders