Bailleul (North)

Bailleul
region	Hauts-de-France
Department	North
Arrondissement	Dunkerque
Canton	Bailleul (main town)
Community association	Flandre Intérieure
Coordinates	50 ° 44 ′ N , 2 ° 44 ′ E Coordinates: 50 ° 44 ′ N , 2 ° 44 ′ E
height	14-86 m
surface	43.42 km 2
Residents	14,769 (January 1, 2017)
Population density	340 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code	59270
INSEE code	59043
Website	www.ville-bailleul.fr
	; Location of Bailleul in the Dunkerque arrondissement

Bailleul ( Dutch Belle ) is a French municipality with 14,769 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in Nord in the region of Hauts-de-France . It belongs to the Arrondissement of Dunkerque , is the capital of the canton of Bailleul and belongs to the Flandre Intérieure municipality .

geography

Bailleul on the Belgian border lies between the large cities of Lille and Dunkirk in the former French Flanders , in the extreme north of France. The city itself is 44 m above sea level. M., and in addition to the actual city, the 43.42 km² large municipal area includes three larger hamlets: La Crèche (17 m above sea level) and Steent'je (18 m above sea level) in the south of the city, in the Plain of the Leie (French: Lys) and Outtersteene (25 m above sea level) in the east, directly on the border with Flanders.

history

Town Hall and Belfry of Bailleul

In 1526 Flanders fell to the Spanish Netherlands through the Treaty of Madrid . During the reign of Philip II , the first religious problems arose between Flanders and Spain .

In the 17th century, Flanders was a permanent battlefield. Louis XIV recaptured Flanders. As a result, Bailleul fell back to France in 1678.

With the Treaty of Utrecht , Flanders and with it Bailleul fell to Austria in 1713 , before both finally came to France in 1745 after the Battle of Fontenoy and the Peace of Aachen . Numerous fires shaped the history of the city.

From the 17th to the 19th century, the bobbin lace craft developed in Bailleul (lace museum “La Maison de la Dentelle”), a craft for which the city is still known far beyond its borders.

Map of the German gas attack on April 30, 1916

During the First World War , the area around Bailleul was at times severely affected by the heavy fighting that German and Allied troops fought over the nearby Belgian city of Ypres . When German gas troops used chlorine gas against the Allied troops near Wulverghem (municipality of Heuvelland , Belgium) on April 30, 1916 on a front length of 3.2 km , the resulting poisonous gas cloud extended to Bailleul. When Emperor battle in the operation Georgette from April 13, 1918 Bailleul was with his old Flemish city core destroyed more than 90 percent.

After the severe destruction of World War I, the city was rebuilt in the Neo-Flemish style in the course of the 20th century. A typical example of the architectural style that is widespread throughout Flanders is the town hall from 1932 with its bell tower.

Population development

year	1962	1968	1975	1982	1990	1999	2007	2017
Residents	12,583	13,077	13,474	13,400	13,847	14,136	13,496	14,769

Architectural monuments

See: List of Monuments historiques in Bailleul (North)

Economy and Infrastructure

economic sectors

The metropolitan area around Lille, in which Bailleul is located, has traditionally been an important center of the textile industry . Already in the Middle Ages, especially from the 12th to the 14th century, Bailleul was very well known for its red scarves, which were made with English wool. From the 16th century onwards, wool was increasingly replaced by linen , which was cultivated from the flax plants in the vicinity of the city. As a result, the city built a reputation for making lace (fabric) (18th and 19th centuries). In 1664 the first school for learning lace was opened. In 1789 there were more than a thousand so-called Dentellières (lace makers ) in and around the city . The success of this manual work lasted until the middle of the 19th century, before it was superseded by the newly emerging factory work. Today this handicraft is practiced as handicraft by only a few people in Bailleul .

In the city there is a factory of the food company Danone .

traffic

Bailleul has good transport links. The national road N 42 leads from Boulogne-sur-Mer via Saint-Omer to Bailleul and ends here. In addition, the city is on the European route 42 , which leads from Dunkirk (Dunkerque) to Lille . Bailleul is also connected to public transport by a rail link that leads to Lille in the south and Dunkirk and Calais in the north.