Saint-Ghislain

Saint-Ghislain
Saint-Ghislain
State :	Belgium
Region :	Wallonia
Province :	Hainaut
District :	Mons
Coordinates :	50 ° 27 '  N , 3 ° 49'  E Coordinates: 50 ° 27 '  N , 3 ° 49'  E
Area :	70.18 km²
Residents:	23,311 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density:	332 inhabitants per km²
Post Code:	7330-7334
Prefix:	065
Mayor:	Daniel Olivier
Local government address :	Rue de Chièvres, 17 7333 Tertre
Website:	www.saint-ghislain.be

Saint-Ghislain is a municipality in the Belgian province of Hainaut . It is considered the unofficial capital of the Borinage , an industrial landscape on the banks of the Haine River, characterized by coal mining . The city is made up of the districts of Saint-Ghislain, Baudour, Neufmaison, Sirault, Tertre, Hautrage and Villerot.

history

According to legend, the place goes back to the holy Ghislain (also Gislenus ), who is said to have settled here around 680. He called his home Ursidongus . In accordance with an agreement with the Aldegundis , who was later canonized as well , he then founded a monastery in the same place, where he also died around 690. His bones were excavated in 929 and first transferred to Grandlieu and later to Le Cateau-Cambrésis . In 1647 they were returned to the place where he worked, which now bore his name.

Center of Saint-Ghislain -
from left: town hall, new town church and tower of the old church

The monastery passed to the Benedictine order and developed into one of the wealthiest in the region. In 881, however, it was looted and set on fire by the Normans . The place that had grown up around the monastery was initially called Cella . It took off after 1286 when the market in the neighboring village of Hornu was relocated here. Because of its proximity to the Hennegau capital Mons , the place soon acquired strategic importance. Under the rule of Albrecht von Bayern it was fortified in 1366 and remained the seat of a garrison for centuries . In 1589 Saint-Ghislain was granted city rights.

In the following centuries the town and monastery were repeatedly plundered and partly destroyed: in 1581 by the Huguenots, in 1655 by the Turennes troops , and in 1657 by the Spaniards under Juan José de Austria . The French returned in 1677, but lost the city to the Spanish again after the battle of Malplaquet and the subsequent Peace of Nijmegen . In 1796 the monastery was closed and the buildings were sold and demolished.

In August 1914, Saint-Ghislain was occupied by troops of the BEF ( British Expeditionary Force ) who opposed a front line (from Thieu ) along the Canal du Center to Nimy and from there along the Mons-Condé Canal to Thulin , front width about 30 kilometers building up advancing German troops. On 23/24 August 1914 the Germans captured Saint-Ghislain (→ Battle of Mons ). On November 11, 1918, Canadian troops liberated Mons.

From 15 April to 2 May 1944, the bombed Western Allies the marshalling yard of Saint-Ghislain, destroying about half of the city. On the night of May 1st and 2nd, planes dropped about 550 tons of bombs; over 100 residents died.

At the beginning of September 1944, Mons and the surrounding areas were conquered and liberated from German occupation.

In September 2010, the company Google Inc. opened a data center in Saint-Ghislain with around 120 employees. The data center was later enlarged.

Town twinning

Saint-Ghislain has been related to the French city of Saint-Lô in Normandy since 1962 and to the Polish city of Sierakowice in the Pomeranian Voivodeship since 2005 . Further relationships exist with Aalen (Germany), Tatabánya (Hungary) and Christchurch (Great Britain).

sons and daughters of the town

• Johannes Ockeghem (* between 1410 and 1430; † 1497), Flemish composer, singer and cleric
• Isabelle Blume (1892–1975), Belgian socialist politician, resistance fighter and President of the World Peace Council
• Jacques Pohl (1909–1993), Belgian Romance studies and linguist
• Michel Daerden (1949–2012), Belgian politician

Web links

Commons : Saint-Ghislain  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: S. Gislain in the Topographia Circuli Burgundici (Mathäus Merian)  - sources and full texts

proof

1. ^ Reichsarchiv, Grenzschlachten, p. 495
2. ↑ John Keegan, The First World War. A European tragedy, Reinbek 2001, p. 148.
3. ↑ An ambitious program to celebrate the centenary of the First World War in Mons in 2014 , The First and the Last, Press pack of the 23rd August 2013, PDF, 16 MB
4. ↑ Photo gallery
5. ↑ www.saint-ghislain.be ( Memento of the original from December 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ^ C. Lo .: 1944: Saint-Ghislain sous les bombes. In: DH.be . April 21, 2010, accessed January 5, 2016 (French). 
7. ↑ Google.com
8. ↑ The economic impact of Google's data center in Belgium (pdf, 37 pp.)