Thursday 22 March 2012

Tournai

Tournai, in Dutch Doornik, in Latin: Tornacum) is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt, in the province of Hainaut.
Along with Tongeren, Tournai is the oldest city in Belgium and it has played an important role in the country's cultural history.


Tournai is located in the lowlands of Belgium, at the southern limit of the Flemish plain, in the basin of the river Escaut ("Schelde" in Dutch). Administratively, the town is part of the Province of Hainaut, itself part of Wallonia. It is also a municipality that is part of the French-speaking Community of Belgium. Tournai has its own arrondissements, both administrative and judicial.
Its area of 213.75 km² makes it the largest commune in size in Belgium; it is also the largest in population in Western Hainaut. The municipality of Tournai consists of the former municipalities of Ere, Saint-Maur, Orcq, Esplechin, Froyennes, Froidmont, Willemeau, Ramegnies-Chin, Templeuve, Chercq, Blandain, Hertain, Lamain, Marquain, Gaurain-Ramecroix, Havinnes, Beclers, Thimougies, Barry, Maulde, Vaulx, Vezon, Kain, Melles, Quartes, Rumillies, Mont-Saint-Aubert, Mourcourt and Warchin.


Rocks from the Tournai area date from the Carboniferous Period and have been used to define the Tournaisian Age, a subdivision of the Carboniferous lasting from 359 to 345 million years ago. Tournai stone is a dark limestone which takes a polish and was used particularly in the Romanesque period for sculpted items such as baptismal fonts. It is also hard enough to have been used locally for pavements and kerb-stones. It is sometimes called Tournai marble, though this is geologically inaccurate.


A French-speaking Flemish town
Tournai is a French-speaking town of Belgium. The local language is tournaisien, a Picard dialect similar to that of other communes of Hainaut and Northern France.
Tournai belongs to Romance Flanders, like Lille, Douai, Tourcoing, and Mouscron. The city of Tournai was one of the greatest cultural and economic centers of the County of Flanders. Some traces can still be seen today:
The gothic choir of Our Lady's Cathedral is a precursory element of the Scaldian (meaning from the Scheldt area), typically Flemish, Gothic art.
The bishopric of Tournai was the religious capital of Flanders during more than a millennium (from 496 to 1559).
The tapestries and draperies of Tournai belong to the great Flemish school of tapestry and Tournai was part of the Flemish Hansa of London, which also included the draper towns of Flanders.
The Saint-Brice church of Tournai, dedicated to Saint Britius, is one of the first examples of the hallekerk style, so typical of the Flemish countryside.
Some of the great Flemish Primitives are from Tournai: Robert Campin, Roger van der Weyden, Jacques Daret.
Although Tournai is in the Flemish cultural area (of the Scheldt), it also possesses some treasures of the Mosan style. Indeed, the two most beautiful shrines of the Cathedral, commissioned by the Bishop of Tournai, were made in the region of Liège by the artist Nicholas of Verdun: the shrines of Saint-Eleutherius and of Our Lady of Flanders (13th century). Those shrines testify to the opulence of the towns of Tournai and Liège during the Middle-Ages. The shrine of Our Lady of Flanders has been called one of the seven wonders of Belgium.


The "Great Procession" (in French: Grande Procession) has taken place every year since 1092, with the single exception of the year 1566, when the iconoclasts considerably damaged the religious symbols of the city. This historic procession unfolds in the streets every second Sunday of September.
The first Monday after January 6 is known as "Lost Monday" (in French: Lundi perdu) or "Perjury Monday" (Lundi parjuré). This tradition dates from more than 700 years ago. The wealthier city inhabitants used to prepare fastuous family dinners and elect a king. Today, the family dinners have expanded to wider groups and a rabbit dish is often served.




Clovis I, first king of all Salian Franks
Gilles Li Muisis, French chronicler and poet (13th century)
Roger van der Weyden, Flemish painter (15th century)
Jacques Daret, Flemish painter (15th century)
Pierre de La Rue, Franco-Flemish composer (15th century)
Perkin Warbeck, impostor and pretender to the throne of England (15th century)
Marbrianus de Orto, Franco-Flemish composer (15th-16th century)
Charles Blount, 5th Baron Mountjoy, courtier and patron of learning (16th century)
Isaac Le Maire, pioneering merchant of the VOC, the Dutch East India Company (16th century)
Louise-Françoise de Bourbon (1673–1743) illegitimate daughter of Louis XIV of France and his most famous mistress Madame de Montespan.
Donat Casterman, publisher (18th century)
Piat Sauvage, painter (19th century)
Louis Gallait, painter (19th century)
Jean-Baptiste Moëns, philatelist (19th century)
Jules Bara, statesman (19th century)
Georges Rodenbach, Symbolist poet and novelist (19th century)
Hélène Dutrieu, cycle racer, stunt driver and aviator (19th and 20th centuries)
Marc Quaghebeur, writer (20th century)
Xaveer De Geyter, architect (20th century)

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