Tourcoing

Tourcoing (French: [tuʁkwɛ̃] ^ⓘ; Dutch: Toerkonje [tuːrˈkɔɲə]; West Flemish: Terkoeje; Picard: Tourco) is a city in northern France on the Belgian border. It is designated municipally as a commune within the department of Nord.^[3] 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 97,000 inhabitants.

Tourcoing Tourco (Picard) Terkoeje (West Flemish)
Commune
Hôtel de Ville
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Tourcoing
Tourcoing Show map of France Tourcoing Show map of Hauts-de-France
Coordinates: 50°43′26″N 3°09′40″E
Country	France
Region	Hauts-de-France
Department	Nord
Arrondissement	Lille
Canton	Tourcoing-1 and 2
Intercommunality	Métropole Européenne de Lille
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Doriane Bécue[1] (DVC)
Area 1	15.19 km2 (5.86 sq mi)
Population  (2021)[2]	99,011
• Density	6,500/km2 (17,000/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	59599 /59200
Elevation	67 m (220 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Together with the cities of Lille, Roubaix, Villeneuve-d'Ascq and eighty-six other communes,^[4] Tourcoing is part of four-city-centred metropolitan area inhabited by more than 1.1 million people: the Métropole Européenne de Lille.^[5][6][7] 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.^[8]

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).^[9]

Population

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1793 12,110 —     1800 11,380 −0.88% 1806 11,999 +0.89% 1821 14,661 +1.34% 1831 17,973 +2.06% 1836 19,966 +2.13% 1841 22,503 +2.42% 1846 26,834 +3.58% 1851 27,615 +0.58% 1856 29,646 +1.43% 1861 33,498 +2.47% 1866 38,262 +2.70% 1872 43,322 +2.09% 1876 48,634 +2.93% 1881 51,895 +1.31% 1886 58,008 +2.25% 1891 65,477 +2.45% 1896 73,353 +2.30%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1901 79,243 +1.56% 1906 81,671 +0.61% 1911 82,644 +0.24% 1921 78,600 −0.50% 1926 81,379 +0.70% 1931 81,972 +0.15% 1936 78,393 −0.89% 1946 76,080 −0.30% 1954 83,416 +1.16% 1962 89,258 +0.85% 1968 98,755 +1.70% 1975 102,239 +0.50% 1982 96,908 −0.76% 1990 93,765 −0.41% 1999 93,540 −0.03% 2007 92,118 −0.19% 2012 92,707 +0.13% 2017 97,368 +0.99%
Source: EHESS[10] and INSEE (1968-2017)[11]

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 80-metre (262-foot) 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.^[12]
• Jardin botanique de Tourcoing, a botanical garden and arboretum.

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
• Brigitte Fossey, actress
• Anna Gomis, wrestler
• Henri Padou, water polo player and 1924 Olympic gold medallist
• Brigitte Lahaie, pornstar
• Joseph-Charles Lefèbvre, bishop of Bourges, cardinal, cousin of
• Marcel Lefebvre, 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-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.^[13]

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.^[14] It received support from regional funders, Nord France Amorquage and IRD Gestion.^[15] The company is now the platform for media outlets Le Figaro, Liberation, l'Équipe and AFP, as well as large corporations and independent content producers.^[16]

Church of St Christopher

International relations

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in France

Twin towns - sister cities

Tourcoing is twinned with:^[17]

• Biella, Italy
• Bottrop, Germany
• Jastrzębie-Zdrój, Poland
• Mitte (Berlin), Germany
• Mühlhausen, Germany
• Partyzanski (Minsk), Belarus

Other forms of cooperation

• Guimarães, Portugal
• Mouscron, Belgium
• Rochdale, England

See also

• Battle of Tourcoing (1794)
• Free Institution of Sacred Heart
• Communes of the Nord department
• Verlaine Message Museum

References

1. "Répertoire national des élus: les maires" (in French). data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 6 June 2023.
2. "Populations légales 2021" (in French). The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 28 December 2023.
3. INSEE commune file
4. Lecluyse, Frédérick (16 December 2016). "MEL : on prend les mêmes ou presque et on recommence" [MEL: let's take hardly the same ones and start over]. Nord Éclair (in French). 73 (349, ROUBAIX & SES ALENTOURS). Roubaix, F: La Voix du Nord, S.A.: 4. ISSN 1277-1422. Bois-Grenier, Le Maisnil, Fromelles, Aubers et Radinghem-en-Weppes. Soit 6000 habitants supplémentaires pour une MEL qui compte désormais 90 communes…
5. Ezelin, Perrine (2 April 2015). "European Metropole of Lille Local Action Plan" (PDF). Edinburgh, UK: CSI Europe URBACT. p. 3. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
6. URBACT (29 May 2015). "Lille". Edinburgh, UK. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
7. Neveu, Clarisse (15 December 2016). "Métropole Européenne de Lille : les vice-présidents et conseillers métropolitains délégués élus" [European Metropolis of Lille : elected vice-presidents and metropolitan delegate-councilors]. MEL. Communiqué de presse (in French). Lille, F: Métropole Européenne de Lille. Retrieved 18 December 2016. La fusion, effective au 1er janvier 2017, acte un élargissement historique du territoire de la Métropole Européenne de Lille, passant de 85 à 90 communes pour près d'1.2 million d'habitants.
8. Durand, Frédéric (12 May 2015). "Theoretical framework of the cross border space production the case of the Eurometropolis Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai" (PDF). Luxembourg, L: EUBORDERSCAPES. p. 18. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
9. Soboul, Albert (1975). The French Revolution 1787–1799. USA: Vintage. p. 404. ISBN 0-394-71220-X.
10. Des villages de Cassini aux communes d'aujourd'hui: Commune data sheet Tourcoing, EHESS (in French).
11. Population en historique depuis 1968, INSEE
12. Base Mérimée: PA00107840, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
13. "Pilgrim Village Families Sketch: Phillip Delano/De la Noye". American Ancestors. New England Historic Genealogical Society. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
14. "3 Questions a Maxime Piquette". City of Roubaix.
15. Hamon-Beugin, Valentin. "Ausha, une start-up française à la conquête du marché des podcasts". Economie. Le Figaro.
16. Tucker, Charlotte. "French startup Ausha raises €1.2 million to strengthen its podcast platform in France and Europe". EU Startups. Menlo Media.
17. "Villes Amies". tourcoing.fr (in French). Tourcoing. Retrieved 10 December 2019.

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