Valenciennes

Valenciennes, a dark, ill-built manufacturing town and first-class fortress of France, in the dept. of Nord, stands at the entrance of the Rhonelle into the Scheldt (which flows through the town in several arms), by rail 155 miles NNE. of Paris and 58 SW. of Brussels. It possesses a citadel constructed by Vauban, an hotel-de-ville with decorated façade, and a modern Gothic church of Notre Dame with tower 272 feet high. The famous Lace (q.v.) is no longer made here, but a coarse sort is manufactured. Other manufactures are a fine cambric, cotton yarn, hosiery, linseed-oil, beet-root sugar; and the town contains extensive ironworks. The country round about is a great coal-basin, with numerous pits. Valenciennes (the Valentinianæ or Valentiana of the Romans) was ceded to France in 1678, and was taken by the Allies in 1793, after a siege of 84 days, but restored again next year. It is the birthplace of Watteau and Froussart (statue, 1856). Pop. (1872) 22,118; (1891) 24,520.