LILLE

city, capital of Nord dpartement and of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais rgion, northern France, on the Dele River, 136 miles (219 km) north-northeast of Paris, and 9 miles (14 km) from the Belgian frontier by road. Lille (often written L'le [the island] until the 18th century) began as a village between arms of the Dele River. Count Baldwin IV of Flanders fortified it in the 11th century. The medieval town was destroyed or changed hands several times. Louis XIV besieged and claimed it in 1667. After being captured by the Duke of Marlborough in 1708, it was finally ceded to France in 1713 by the Treaty of Utrecht. Lille was damaged and also occupied by the Germans during World Wars I and II. With Tourcoing and Roubaix, Lille forms one of the largest conurbations in France. Its commercial and industrial activities have been stimulated by its proximity to the northern countries of the European Economic Community and by its good communications location. It is an important railway junction, and it is served by an airport, by the motorway from Belgium to Paris and the Mediterranean, and by the canalized river Dele. Lille's Chamber of Commerce dates from the 18th century. It has a commission for regional economic development, a branch of the Bank of France, and has an annual international commercial fair (begun 1925). The city has a state university (transferred from Douai in 1887 and reorganized in 1970), a Roman Catholic university, commercial and technical schools, and a branch of the Pasteur Institute. Lille is the traditional textile centre of France. Other industries include an iron and steel works, machinery manufacturing, and food-processing and chemical plants. The boulevard de la Libert, running southeast-northwest, divides the old town in the north, which used to be cramped within the city walls, from the new town in the south, with its wide and regular streets. At the northwestern end of the boulevard stands the imposing pentagonal military citadel (166770), the best preserved of all the military buildings designed by the engineer Sbastien Le Prestre de Vauban (16331707). The fortifications around the old city have been destroyed, but the majestic archway, the Porte de Paris (1682), still stands. The old hospital Hospice Comtesse, founded in 1236, was rebuilt in the 15th and 17th centuries. The Vieille Bourse, a 17th-century building in typically Flemish style, stands near the square named for General Charles de Gaulle, a native son. The museum has one of the richest art collections in France, with paintings dating from the 15th to the 20th century. Throughout the entire heart of the city private houses have been demolished and replaced by modern multistory buildings. Between the three cities of the conurbation, a new town, called Villeneuve d'Ascq, was built to be the regional administrative centre. Pop. (1990) 178,301.