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 West Flanders ( nl, West-Vlaanderen ; vls, West Vloandern; french: (Province de) Flandre-Occidentale ; german: Westflandern ) is the westernmost province of the Flemish Region, in Belgium. It is the only coastal Belgian province, facing the No ...

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

Reclinghem Reclinghem ( vls, Reklingem) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. It was settled by the Viking Rikiwulf (''the rich and powerful wolf'') in the 9th century, who probably also settled nearby Rich ...

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), 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 se ...

''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 France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and borders Wallonia. It adjoins the localities of

, Lauwe, Aalbeke,

Mouscron Mouscron (; Dutch and vls, Moeskroen, ; Picard and Walloon language, Walloon: ''Moucron'') is a city and Municipalities of Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgium, Belgian Hainaut Province, province of Hainaut, along the border ...

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

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 No ...

) and the A14 motorway ( European route E17) 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