Armentières

Armentières Armentiers
Commune
The town hall
Coat of arms
Country	France
Region	Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardy
Department	Nord
Arrondissement	Lille
Canton	Armentières
Intercommunality	Métropole Européenne de Lille
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Bernard Haesebroeck
Area1	6.28 km2 (2.42 sq mi)
Population (Jan. 2018)2
INSEE/Postal code	59017 / 59280
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. 2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Armentières (French pronunciation: ​[aʁmɑ̃tjɛʁ]; West Flemish: Armentiers) is a commune in the Nord department in the Hauts-de-France region in northern France. It is part of the Métropole Européenne de Lille.

The motto of the town is Pauvre mais fière (Poor but proud).

Geography

Armentières lies on the Belgian border, northwest of the city of Lille, on the right bank of the river Lys.

History

Armentières in 1649

In 1668, the town became French, along with most of the rest of French Flanders. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, Armentières acquired fame, being the “City of Fabric”. Industrial weaving, spinning and brewing grew in Armentières, benefitting from the presence of water.

Armentières particularly suffered during the World Wars although the town received two Military Crosses (one for World War I and the second for the Second World War) and the Legion d'Honneur. In Armentières and the surrounding areas, the military cemeteries are places of remembrance for the casualties of the World Wars. "Mademoiselle from Armentières" was a popular song among Allied soldiers in World War I.

During World War I, in October 1914, the town was the site of the Battle of Armentières. In April 1918, German troops shelled Armentières with mustard gas. British troops were forced to evacuate the area, but the Germans could not enter for two weeks because of the heavy contamination. Witnesses to the bombardment stated that the shelling was so heavy that liquid mustard gas ran in the streets.

Population

Population of Armentières since 1793
Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1793 7,671 —     1800 7,598 −0.14% 1806 7,542 −0.12% 1821 7,681 +0.12% 1831 6,338 −1.90% 1836 6,512 +0.54% 1841 6,817 +0.92% 1846 7,959 +3.15% 1851 8,840 +2.12% 1856 10,104 +2.71% 1861 11,901 +3.33% 1866 15,579 +5.53% 1872 19,035 +3.40% 1876 21,746 +3.38% 1881 25,089 +2.90% 1886 27,985 +2.21% 1891 28,638 +0.46% 1896 29,603 +0.67%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1901 29,401 −0.14% 1906 28,613 −0.54% 1911 28,625 +0.01% 1921 14,758 −6.41% 1926 21,035 +7.35% 1931 22,704 +1.54% 1936 24,049 +1.16% 1946 22,667 −0.59% 1954 24,940 +1.20% 1962 25,248 +0.15% 1968 26,916 +1.07% 1975 26,346 −0.31% 1982 24,834 −0.84% 1990 25,219 +0.19% 1999 25,273 +0.02% 2007 25,170 −0.05% 2012 25,993 +0.65% 2017 24,882 −0.87%
Source: EHESS and INSEE (1968-2017)

Heraldry

The arms of Armentières are blazoned : Argent a fleur de lys gules and on a chief of the same a sun or and a decrescent of the same.

Railways

Armentières station, 2013

Armentières has a railway station on the line from Lille to Calais and Dunkirk.

It was commissioned in 1848 by the Chemins de Fer du Nord (Northern Railway Company). The buildings were completed in 1861.

The station is currently served by TER Hauts-de-France trains, on the routes between Lille-Flandres station and Dunkirk, and between Lille-Flandres and Hazebrouck.

Twin towns – sister cities

Detail of the war memorial in Preying, Bavaria naming Schütze Alois Feichtinger as killed at Armentières, 27 February 1917

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in France

Armentières is twinned with:

• Litoměřice, Czech Republic
• Osterode am Harz, Germany
• Stalybridge, England, United Kingdom

Notable people

• Amédée Fournier (1912–1992), cyclist, Olympic medalist
• Jean Maurice Fiey (1914–1995), Church historian and Syriacist
• Dany Boon (born 1966), actor and stand-up comedian
• Martin Terrier (born 1997), footballer

Monuments

The Belfry of Armentières

The belfry of Armentières was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2005 as part of the Belfries of Belgium and France site, and in recognition of their influence in the rise of municipal power in Europe. The belfry, just like the nearing city hall was designed by the architect Louis Marie Cordonnier and is open for visitors and tourists.

In fiction

Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers hides in Armentières and is caught and executed there.

The bawdy song, Mademoiselle from Armentières, was popular amongst British and American troops during World War 1. There are multiple version of the lyrics, that mostly refer to a woman from the town.

See also

• Communes of the Nord department

External links

• Official website (in French)
• The reconstruction of the town hall of Armentières after WW1 on the website "Remembrance Trails of the Great War in Northern France"