Tourcoing (; nl, Toerkonje ; vls, Terkoeje; pcd, Tourco) 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 ( , ; 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 ...

, adjacent to Roubaix, Tourcoing is the chef-lieu of two cantons and the fourth largest city in the French

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

Hauts-de-France Hauts-de-France (; pcd, Heuts-d'Franche; , also ''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. The ...

ranked by population with about 97,000 inhabitants. Together with the cities of Lille, Roubaix, Villeneuve-d'Ascq and eighty-six other communes, Tourcoing is part of four-city-centred metropolitan area inhabited by more than 1.1 million people: the

Métropole Européenne de Lille The Métropole Européenne de Lille (MEL; en, "European Metropolis of Lille") is the '' métropole'', an intercommunal structure, composed by a network of big cities ( Lille, Roubaix, Tourcoing, Villeneuve d'Ascq, Armentières etc.) whose maj ...

. To a greater extent, Tourcoing belongs to a vast conurbation formed with the Belgian cities of Mouscron,

Kortrijk 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

Tournai Tournai or Tournay ( ; ; nl, Doornik ; pcd, Tornai; wa, Tornè ; la, Tornacum) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies southwest of Brussels on the river Scheldt. Tournai is part of Eu ...

, 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 (french: Guerres de la Révolution française) were a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from 1792 until 1802 and resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted France against Britain, Austria, Pruss ...

. Marshal Charles Pichegru and his

general A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". O ...

s 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).

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 Napoleon III-style. *'' 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, an ...

and

arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, m ...

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 Stéphane Denève (born 24 November 1971) is a French conductor. He is currently music director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of the New World Symphony. Biography Denève was born in Tourcoing, France, and graduated ...

, conductor * Brigitte Fossey, actress * Anna Gomis, wrestler * Henri Padou,

water polo Water polo is a 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 ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with t ...

player and 1924 Olympic gold medallist * Brigitte Lahaie,

pornstar A pornographic film actor or actress, pornographic performer, adult entertainer, or porn star is a person who performs sex acts in video that is usually characterized as a pornographic movie. Such videos tend to be made in a number of dist ...

Joseph-Charles Lefèbvre Joseph-Charles Lefèbvre (commonly Joseph Lefèbvre, 15 April 1892—2 April 1973) was a French cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Bourges from 1943 to 1969 and was made a cardinal in 1960. He was the cousin ...

, bishop of Bourges, cardinal, cousin of * Marcel Lefebvre, missionary priest and, later, controversial 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 Philip Delano (c. 1603 – c. 1681-82) arrived in Plymouth Colony in November 1621 on the voyage of the ship ''Fortune''. He was about 18 years of age on arrival. ''Mayflower'' passenger Francis Cooke was his uncle with whom he may initially ha ...

( - ; born ''Philipe de la Noye'' or ''Philipe de Lannoy''), was an early emigrant to the

Plymouth Colony Plymouth Colony (sometimes Plimouth) was, from 1620 to 1691, the first permanent English colony in New England and the second permanent English colony in North America, after the Jamestown Colony. It was first settled by the passengers on the ...

and progenitor of the prominent Delano family, which counts among its descendants prominent figures in American history, including president

Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

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 ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French Newspaper of recor ...

, Liberation, l'Équipe and AFP, as well as large corporations and independent content producers.

International relations

Twin towns - sister cities

Tourcoing is

twinned Twinning (making a twin of) may refer to: * In biology and agriculture, producing two offspring (i.e., twins) at a time, or having a tendency to do so; * Twin towns and sister cities, towns and cities involved in town twinning * Twinning inst ...

with: * Biella, Italy * Bottrop, Germany *

Jastrzębie-Zdrój Jastrzębie-Zdrój (; german: Bad Königsdorff-Jastrzemb, originally ''Jastrzemb'', cs, Lázně Jestřebí, szl, Jastrzymbie-Zdrōj or ''Jastrzymbje-Zdrůj'') is a city in south Poland with 86,632 inhabitants (2021). Its name comes from the Poli ...

, Poland * Mitte (Berlin), Germany * Mühlhausen, Germany * Partyzanski (Minsk), Belarus

Other forms of cooperation

* Guimarães, Portugal * Mouscron, Belgium * Rochdale, 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