The Place du Général-de-Gaulle () is an urban public space situated in the commune of Lille, Hauts-de-France region. It is the town's historic main square. It has a grand-place style, which is typical of many cities in the former Netherlands.
Until the 21st century, the square was considered to be part of the Forum mentioned in the 1066 foundation act of the Collegiate Church of Saint-Pierre. It is believed to have originated in the 14th century when the town's aldermen decided to turn it into a market. The Deûle was canalized, the ground gradually raised by embankments, then paved to create a market square. In the 17th century, the construction of the Vieille Bourse divided the square into the Grand-Place and the Petite-Place (now the Place du Théâtre). After the liberation of Lille during World War II, the square was renamed in honor of Charles de Gaulle. The square is known locally as the Grand'Place or, more rarely, the Place de la Déesse.
The Place du Général-de-Gaulle continues to serve as a grand plaza for festivities, exchanges, and commercial activities, as well as various events of all kinds. It's still the heart of Lille's braderie. The book trade, with the Furet du Nord bookshop and numerous secondhand booksellers, is also important.
The square is surrounded by a number of buildings, eight of which are listed as historical monuments, including the Théâtre du Nord (formerly the Grande Garde) and the Vieille Bourse (formerly the Bourse de Commerce). At the center of the square stands the Column of the Goddess. Built in 1845, it represents the heroism of the people of Lille during the siege of 1792.
Location and access
The Place du Général-de-Gaulle is located at the heart of Lille, between the pedestrian zone and Vieux-Lille. In an almost rectangular shape, it is 155 meters long and 72 meters wide.. Three of its sides form right angles with each other, while the last is convex with the Rue Esquermoise. The Place du Général-de-Gaulle is paved in checkerboard made out of Lanhélin blue granite and Clarté pink granite.
For motorized vehicles, since August 1, 2016, the Place du Général-de-Gaulle is accessible exclusively from the Rue des Manneliers. The passage for cars is now a one-way street. Vehicles can exit via the Rue Esquermoise to the north-west and via the Rue Nationale to the south-west.. For pedestrians, the main square is also accessible via these streets, but also via the Rue Neuve and the Place Rihour to the south, via the Rue des Sept-Agaches, the Rue du Petit-Paon, and the Rue de la Bourse to the east, as well as via the Rue des Débris-Saint-Étienne to the north. Since 2011, the Place du Général-de-Gaulle has been a "zone de rencontre": motorized vehicles must give way to pedestrians, and their speed is limited to 20 km/h..
The square is accessible by metro, via the first line from Rihour station. It is also accessible from Lille-Flandres station, 400 meters away via the Rue Faidherbe. The underground parking lot beneath the Grand-Place has 342 spaces. According to a survey carried out in 2007 on a population sample of 100, 48% of people arriving at the Place du Général-de-Gaulle came on foot, 32% by public transport, 14% by car, and 6% by bicycle. In 2007, the same study counted 9,000 pedestrians and between 400 and 500 vehicles per day in each direction during rush hour, of which 10-15% used the underground parking lot. With the arrival of the metro, buses have been discontinue, as previously, the square served as a nodal point where several tramway lines converged. Since June 2012, the Vieux-Lille shuttle, a minibus serving Vieux-Lille, crosses the Place du Général-de-Gaulle..
Name origins In September 1944,(fr) J.-P. V., Liberté : de la Grand-Place à la rue de Lannoy in Journal de la société des amis de Panckoucke, April 2007, , read online after the liberation of Lille, the square was renamed in honor of Charles de Gaulle, who was born in the commune in 1890,. and became known as the "Place du Général-de-Gaulle".
From the middle of the 14th century onwards, the square was known as the "Place du Marché",. then "Grand'Place" and even "Grande-Place" since the erection of the Bourse du Commerce in 1652, names that are still attributed to the square. In the past, the square was known as the "Place d'Armes". The square is also commonly known as the "Place de la Déesse".
Based on the foundation act of the Collegiate Church of Saint-Pierre,. historians have long believed that the square dates back to the origins of the commune. It was identified with the Forum, cited in 1066, but archaeological digs have shown that this was not the case.. Rather, the notion of a forum refers to the fact that the district was inhabited by the most affluent and bourgeois families, extending over the present-day Rue de la Grande-Chaussée, Rue des Chats-Bossus, Rue de la Clef, and Rue des Arts. It is therefore impossible to identify the Grand-Place with the forum of the 12th century.
The Grand-Place is registered as "LR10" among Lille's "îlots regroupés pour l'information statistique" (IRIS), as established by Insee in 1999.
History
Middle Ages: the creation of the marketplace
Up until the 13th century, the site was occupied by the waters of the Deûle and by a marsh. Nearby was the alderman's hall, which burned down in 1213 and was rebuilt in 1233.. In 1242, the city's aldermen canalized. the Basse-Deûle between La Bassée and Lille,. creating a permanent body of water and flooding the cellars bordering the present-day square. In 1271, the canalization of the Upper Deûle was completed. This released the space corresponding to today's Grand Place.. Initially, the site was crossed from time to time, with difficulty, and only in fine weather, by horse-drawn carriages or horsemen, whose horses had lost many of their shoes, reflecting the difficulty of making headway in the muddy terrain..
The cleared space was soon used for commercial activities at the Lille market. Dating from the end of the 13th century, the first improvements consisted in leveling the ground, which was covered with yellow silt, then with mortar.. Grain trading took place under a wattle-and-daub building, which was burnt down. and never rebuilt. There were also cattle pens..
At the beginning of the 14th century, chalk was laid down, followed regularly by thick embankments to raise the ground, which was still flooded during the highest floods... Merchants who came to sell their wares paid a tax at the entrance to the town, in exchange for which they received tax méreaux certifying that they were in good standing. In the 14th century, a layer of evenly packed limestone was laid down, definitively establishing the site's purpose as a market square. (it took this name around 1350), hosting the numerous stalls of merchants sheltered under canvas awnings, which they set up as they pleased, without the alderman being able to enforce compliance with the defined locations..
From the middle of the 14th century, the municipality hired staff to clean the market. Access to the market was via three non-aligned streets.. In addition to today's Place du Général-de-Gaulle, the trapezoidal market extended into today's Place du Théâtre and the buildings between them, covering an area of at least eight hectares. At the northern corner of the square stood the church of Saint-Étienne, with its cemetery. To the east, the square was flanked by private houses, commonly known at the time as the "Pottery Market"; to the south, by the alderman's hall, houses, and a butcher's shop; and to the west, by houses backing onto the Canal des Boucheries, one of Lille's many covered canals in the 19th century, which ran approximately where the Rue Saint-Nicolas is today. At its center, from north to south, were the Hôtel du Beauregard, the Chapelle des Ardents, and the Fountaine au Change..
The square was also a symbolic place for the authorities: the revart, the town's chief Alderman, and the prévôt de la ville, the king's agent, were based there. The square was also the site of the pillory, where those condemned to death were tortured and their bodies displayed.. The Place du Marché was also a place for festivities. In front of the alderman's hall, the Épinette festival was held, featuring an equestrian joust on the first Sunday of Lent.. Dice were also played here, despite prohibitions.
At the beginning of the 15th century, the square was paved with an irregular layer of green sand, and by the middle of the century, both the growing population of Lille and the need to embellish the square prompted the Chambre des Comptes to lease public land adjoining the cemetery to residents. The operation enabled the town to re-establish its finances.. Much of the trade in foodstuffs and handicrafts took place on or near the square: there was always the wheat market, but also markets for chickens, fish, salt, compenage (all the foodstuffs used to accompany bread), sayette cloth, straw, horses, pottery and shuttles. Near the market square were the public infrastructures needed for the market: the money changers and the public weight, as well as other specialized markets: the Ruelle aux Fromages and the Rue des Manneliers (basketmakers). Shoemakers were located nearby.
Modern times: from the Place du Marché to the Grand-Place
In 1550, a guardhouse was built on the site of the old butcher's shop. The "Nouvelles Boucheries" on the first floor of the building were adorned with a Dutch lion... At the same time, a grain market was held on the square.. Forty-four years later, the alderman's hall was enlarged and embellished.
In the mid-seventeenth century, the town was obliged to maintain a large garrison of Spanish troops during the War of Devolution. To meet these expenses, the commune sold the houses in the center of the square. The new owner had them demolished in order to build new ones,. despite the reluctance of the people of Lille.. In 1651, the Alderman decided to build a Bourse de Commerce on the Place du Marché at the fountain au Change;. on July 30, he also had the Notre-Dame-des-Ardents chapel demolished.. In 1652, work began on Julien Destrée's plans and was completed the following year. Inside, many merchants decided to set up a permanent fair, following the example of the Passage du Caire in Paris. From then on, the houses constructed at the same time separated the Place du Marché into the Grand-Place and the Petite-Place, then known as the Place du Théâtre. This was the birth of the Grand'Place.. It is 420 feet long and 220 feet wide. In 1664, the Alderman moved from his aldermanic hall on the Grand'Place to the Palais Rihour.
In 1668, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle gave the city of Lille to France. Years later, in 1683 and 1684, to improve traffic flow, the parking of coal carts and brewers was prohibited. The following year, in 1685, Louis XIV's engineers planned to adorn the square with an equestrian statue of the king and two fountains to impose the royal imprint. The project never saw the light of day due to the war. Then, in 1700, the floor of the Grand-Place was raised by two feet. In 1717, the Grande Garde was built. in place of the guardhouse, modifying the façade.
Contemporary era: up to the Place du Général-de-Gaulle