Lille

Lille (Flemish Ryssel), a manufacturing town and first-class fortress of France, chief town of the department of Nord, is situated on a sub-tributary of the Scheldt, in a fertile district, 66 miles by rail SE. of Calais. Lille derives its name from the castle around which it originally arose, and which from its position in the midst of marshes was called L'Isle. It was founded early in the 11th century by the counts of Flanders. From 1305 it was mortgaged to France, but passed to Burgundy in 1365. Louis XIV. conquered the town in 1667, and, though it was recaptured by Marlborough and Prince Eugene in 1708, the Austrians restored it in 1713. In 1792 it successfully resisted the determined attacks of the Austrians. Its present defences consist of a pentagonal citadel, the work of Vauban, and a series of seven forts encircling the town. The old fortifications were for the most part levelled from 1858 onwards. The town is modern built and possesses few notable buildings except the church of Notre Dame (1855), and the town-hall with the museum, the famous Wicar collection of drawings by the Old Masters, and a library of 41,000 volumes. The principal institutions are a Catholic 'free university,' independent faculties of medicine and science, technical schools, a music school, and an academy of art. Lille is a great centre of textile industries: the spinning of linen and cotton, the manufacture of thread, damask, cloth, tulle, tickings, &c.—these textile industries give employment to nearly 20,000 workpeople—of tobacco, beer, paper, and sugar, dye-works, bleaching-fields, the fabrication of machinery, and oil-works indicate the chief industries. Pop. (1872) 152,775; (1886) 151,397; (1891) 160,966. See Van Hende, Histoire de Lille (2d ed. 1875).