Tourcoing
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 Flag .svg) Coat of arms | |
 Location of Tourcoing | |
  Tourcoing  Tourcoing | |
| Coordinates: 50°43′26″N 3°09′40″E / 50.723907°N 3.161168°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 (2023)[2] | 98,772 |
| • Density | 6,502/km2 (16,840/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. | |
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.
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
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 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 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. The nearest airports to Tourcoing are Lille Airport which is located 23 km away and Brussels Airport which is located 117 km away.
Notable people
- Yohan Cabaye (born 1986), footballer
- Jean-Marc Degraeve (born 1971), chess grandmaster
- Stéphane Denève (born 1971), conductor
- Achille Desurmont (1828–1898), writer
- Brigitte Fossey (born 1946), actress
- Anna Gomis (born 1973), wrestler
- Henri Padou (1898–1981), water polo player and 1924 Olympic gold medallist
- Brigitte Lahaie (born 1955), pornstar
- Joseph-Charles Lefèbvre (1892–1973), bishop of Bourges, cardinal, cousin of
- Marcel Lefebvre (1905–1991), missionary priest and, later, archbishop, cousin of Joseph-Charles
- Mr. Sam (born 1975), a popular deejay and producer running his own record label since 2008.
- Albert Roussel (1869–1937), composer
- Yves Devernay (1937–1990), 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]
International relations
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
See also
- Battle of Tourcoing (1794)
- Free Institution of Sacred Heart
- Communes of the Nord department
- Verlaine Message Museum
- CO Roubaix-Tourcoing
References
- ^ "Répertoire national des élus: les maires" (in French). data.gouv.fr, Plateforme ouverte des données publiques françaises. 6 June 2023.
- ^ "Populations de référence 2023" (in French). National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies. 18 December 2025.
- ^ INSEE commune file
- ^ 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…
- ^ Ezelin, Perrine (2 April 2015). "European Metropole of Lille Local Action Plan" (PDF). Edinburgh, UK: CSI Europe URBACT. p. 3. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
- ^ URBACT (29 May 2015). "Lille". Edinburgh, UK. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Soboul, Albert (1975). The French Revolution 1787–1799. USA: Vintage. p. 404. ISBN 0-394-71220-X.
- ^ Des villages de Cassini aux communes d'aujourd'hui: Commune data sheet Tourcoing, EHESS (in French).
- ^ Population en historique depuis 1968, INSEE
- ^ Base Mérimée: PA00107840, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
- ^ "Pilgrim Village Families Sketch: Phillip Delano/De la Noye". American Ancestors. New England Historic Genealogical Society. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
- ^ "3 Questions a Maxime Piquette". City of Roubaix.
- ^ Hamon-Beugin, Valentin. "Ausha, une start-up française à la conquête du marché des podcasts". Economie. Le Figaro.
- ^ Tucker, Charlotte. "French startup Ausha raises €1.2 million to strengthen its podcast platform in France and Europe". EU Startups. Menlo Media.
- ^ "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
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