Tourcoing (; ; ; ) 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 Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

, adjacent to

Roubaix Roubaix ( , ; ; ; ) is a city in northern France, located in the Lille metropolitan area on the Belgian border. It is a historically mono-industrial Communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, depar ...

, Tourcoing is the

chef-lieu An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune, is located. In countries with French as the administrative language, such as Belgiu ...

of two

cantons A canton is a type of administrative division of a country. In general, cantons are relatively small in terms of area and population when compared with other administrative divisions such as counties, departments, or provinces. Internationally, th ...

and the fourth largest city in the French

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

Hauts-de-France Hauts-de-France (; ; ), also referred to in English as Upper France, is the northernmost region of France, created by the territorial reform of French regions in 2014, from a merger of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy. Its prefecture is Lille. ...

ranked by population with about 97,000 inhabitants. Together with the cities of Lille, Roubaix,

Villeneuve-d'Ascq Villeneuve-d'Ascq (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department in northern France. With more than 60,000 inhabitants and 50,000 students, it is one of the main cities of the Métro ...

and eighty-six other communes, Tourcoing is part of four-city-centred

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...

inhabited by more than 1.1 million people: the

Métropole Européenne de Lille The Métropole Européenne de Lille (, MEL; ) is the , an intercommunal structure, composed by a network of big cities ( Lille, Roubaix, Tourcoing, Villeneuve d'Ascq, Armentières etc.) whose major city is the city of Lille. It is located in ...

. To a greater extent, Tourcoing belongs to a vast

conurbation A conurbation is a region consisting of a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most ...

formed with the Belgian cities of

Mouscron Mouscron (; Dutch language, Dutch and , ; Picard language, Picard and Walloon language, Walloon: ''Moucron'') is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality and City status in Belgium, city of Wallonia located in the Belgium, Belgian Hainaut Provinc ...

Kortrijk Kortrijk ( , ; or ''Kortrik''; ), sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray ( ), is a Belgian City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region, Flemish Provinces of Belgium, province of We ...

and

Tournai Tournai ( , ; ; ; , sometimes Anglicisation (linguistics), anglicised in older sources as "Tournay") is a city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Hainaut Province, Province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies by ...

, 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.

History

The city was the site of a significant victory for France during the

French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars () were a series of sweeping military conflicts resulting from the French Revolution that lasted from 1792 until 1802. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, Habsb ...

. Marshal Charles Pichegru and his

general A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

s Joseph Souham and Jean Moreau defeated a combined force of

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

and Austrian troops in the Battle of Tourcoing on 29 Floréal II (18 May 1794).

Population

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 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

Second Empire style Second Empire style, also known as the Napoleon III style, is a highly Eclecticism in architecture, eclectic style of architecture and decorative arts originating in the Second French Empire. It was characterized by elements of many differe ...

. *'' Jardin botanique de Tourcoing'', a

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is ...

and

arboretum An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...

Transport

The Tourcoing station 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

* Yohan Cabaye, footballer * Jean-Marc Degraeve, chess grandmaster * Stéphane Denève, conductor * Achille Desurmont, writer * Brigitte Fossey, actress * Anna Gomis, wrestler * Henri Padou,

water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

player and 1924 Olympic gold medallist * Brigitte Lahaie, pornstar * Joseph-Charles Lefèbvre, bishop of Bourges,

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

, cousin of *

Marcel Lefebvre Marcel François Marie Joseph Lefebvre (29 November 1905 – 25 March 1991) was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic prelate who served as Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dakar, Archbishop of Dakar from 1955 to 1962. He was a major inf ...

, missionary priest and, later, archbishop, cousin of Joseph-Charles * Mr. Sam, a popular deejay and producer running his own record label since 2008. * Albert Roussel, composer * Yves Devernay, organist Guilbert de Lannoy (1545-) and his son Jean de Lannoy (1575-) were Protestants from Tourcoing who resettled in Leiden, Holland. Jean's son, Philip Delano ( - ; born ''Philipe de la Noye'' or ''Philipe de Lannoy''), was an early emigrant to the

Plymouth Colony Plymouth Colony (sometimes spelled Plimouth) was the first permanent English colony in New England from 1620 and the third permanent English colony in America, after Newfoundland and the Jamestown Colony. It was settled by the passengers on t ...

and progenitor of the prominent

Delano family In the United States, members of the Delano family include U.S. presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant and Calvin Coolidge, astronaut Alan B. Shepard, and writer Laura Ingalls Wilder. Its progenitor is Phili ...

, which counts among its descendants prominent figures in American history, including president

Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

Notable Startups

In 2013, Maxime Piquette and Charles De Potter founded iCreo, a digital audio company in Tourcoing. The company created RadioKing, a platform for internet radio, and Ausha, a platform for podcast hosting and marketing. It received support from regional funders, Nord France Amorquage and IRD Gestion. The company is now the platform for media outlets

Le Figaro () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...

, Liberation,

l'Équipe ''L'Équipe'' (, French for "the team") is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sport, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. The paper is noted for coverage of association football, rugby, motorsport, and cycling. Its predecessor, '' ...

and AFP, as well as large corporations and independent content producers.

International relations

Twin towns - sister cities

Tourcoing is twinned with: *

Biella Biella (; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the northern Italy, Italian region of Piedmont, the capital of the Province of Biella, province of the same name, with a population of 44,324 as of 31 December 2017. It is located about northeast of ...

, Italy *

Bottrop Bottrop () is a city in west-central Germany, on the Rhine–Herne Canal, in North Rhine-Westphalia. Located in the Ruhr area, Ruhr industrial area, Bottrop adjoins Essen, Oberhausen, Gladbeck, and Dorsten. The city had been a coal-mining and ...

, Germany *

Jastrzębie-Zdrój Jastrzębie-Zdrój (, ) is a city in the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland with 86,632 inhabitants (2021). Its name comes from the Polish words ''jastrząb'' ("hawk") and ''zdrój'' ("spa" or "spring"). From 1861 until the 20th century, it w ...

, Poland * Mitte (Berlin), Germany *

Mühlhausen Mühlhausen () is a town in the north-west of Thuringia, Germany, north of Niederdorla, the country's Central Germany (geography)#Geographical centre, geographical centre, north-west of Erfurt, east of Kassel and south-east of Göttingen ...

, Germany * Partyzanski (Minsk), Belarus

Other forms of cooperation

Guimarães Guimarães () is a city and municipality located in northern Portugal, in the district of Braga. Its historic town centre has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, in recognition for being an "exceptionally well-preserved ...

, Portugal *

, Belgium *

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...

, England

References

External links

Tourcoing town council website
(in French)
Tourcoing Volley-Ball Lille Métropole
(Official website of the top team, in French)
See pictures from Antonio Mucherino's web site
{{Authority control Communes of Nord (French department) French Flanders