| Mouscron | |
| Namenl: | Moeskroen |
| Map: | Mouscron Hainaut Belgium Map.svg |
| Map-Legend: | Location of Mouscron in Hainaut |
| Arms: | Blason ville be Mouscron.svg |
| Flag: | Drapeau ville be Mouscron.svg |
| Arrondissement: | Tournai-Mouscron |
| Nis: | 57096 |
| Mayor: | Brigitte Aubert (Les Engagés) |
| Majority: | Les Engagés-MR |
| Postal-Codes: | 7700, 7711, 7712 |
| Telephone-Area: | 056 |
| Web: | www.mouscron.be |
| Coordinates: | 50.7333°N 16°W |
Mouscron (in French pronounced as /mukʁɔ̃/; Dutch and Moeskroen, in Dutch; Flemish pronounced as /muˈskrun/; Picard and Walloon: Moucron) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, along the border with the French city of Tourcoing, which is part of the Lille metropolitan area.
The municipality consists of the following districts: Dottignies, Herseaux, Luingne, and Mouscron. In accordance with the national law, the municipality offers facilities for the Dutch speaking minority. Kortrijk, in Flanders, is located just to the north of Mouscron.
The city substantially grew during the 19th and early 20th century with the development of the textile industry in the north of France. The symbol of the city is the Hurlu: a character representing Protestant activists, who plundered the countryside during the Wars of Religion (16th century).
Mouscron is divided into 7 districts: the downtown (le centre), the train station (la gare), Mont-à-Leux, Tuquet, Risquons-Tout, Nouveau-Monde and Coquinie. The municipality of Mouscron now also includes the old municipalities of Dottignies, Luingne, and Herseaux since the Fusion of the Belgian municipalities. The metropolitan area of Mouscron forms a conurbation with the French metropolitan area of Lille and is at the crossroad of three different administrative regions: Wallonia, France and Flanders. Mouscron is located 9 km from Roubaix, 11 km from Kortrijk, 23 km from Lille and 25 km from Tournai. The city has been part of the French-speaking province of Hainaut since 1963 and, as a result, part of the administrative region of Wallonia.
A few archaeological discoveries were made in this area proving the existence of settlements during Roman times. The name Dottignies - a village that is now part of Mouscron - appeared for the first time in the 9th century, while that of Mouscron only appeared in 1060. In 1066, Baldwin V, Count of Flanders ceded the local buildings and territories to the estate of the Church of Saint-Pierre in Lille. In 1149, the right to collect tithes in the Mouscron area was ceded in part to the Abbey of Saint Martin in Tournai, in part to the Chapter of the Tournai Cathedral. The rights to the neighbouring villages of Herseaux and Luingne - now also part of Mouscron - were also given to the Tournai Cathedral in 1178. In the 14th century, the Seigneury of Mouscron was eventually sold to a lord of Tournai, and in 1430, the Castle of the Counts (Château des Comtes) became the lord's manor, which can still be seen today. The future Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor stopped there for dinner on May 27, 1516.
In 1575, in the middle of the Wars of Religion, the castle was strengthened. It was nevertheless besieged and taken by the Geuzen, locally known as the Hurlus in 1579, before being taken back three months later. In 1627, Philip IV of Spain promoted the seigneury to the rank of county. The Franco-Dutch War under Louis XIV devastated this mostly agricultural region. Mouscron and the surrounding area became French after the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668). Part of it rejoined the Southern Netherlands after the Treaty of Nijmegen (1678), which drew the frontier right through its territory. It was finally completely ceded to the Southern Netherlands under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. The textile industry started in Mouscron in the 1760s thanks to the imposition by Lille of a ban on the fabrication of molletons, a mixture of flax and wool, in Roubaix and Tourcoing. With the Battle of Fleurus (1794), Mouscron went back to France.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the textile industry flourished and added cotton as one of its prime materials. On March 29, 1848, the Belgian army intervened near Mouscron against a troop of French republican sympathizers who were ready to invade Belgium, in what was known as the Risquons-Tout incident. By the end of the century, several cotton mills and carpet plants were built, leading the village to expand into a much larger urban area, especially after the close of World War I.
During World War II, from May 22 to 27, 1940, artillery fire brought British and German soldiers into conflict in the Risquons-Tout district. 15 British soldiers, 10 German soldiers and 5 civilians were killed in the incident.
In 1963, Mouscron was transferred from the province of West Flanders, to the province of Hainaut, to reflect the predominantly francophone population (94% in 1846 and 74% in 1947). Mouscron was officially recognized as a city in 1986.
From 1960 to 1980, the city experienced a vibrant period in the music industry.
The studio of Marcel De Keukeleire and Jean Van Loo produced famous European artists like Chocolat's (Brasilia Carnaval), Patrick Hernandez (Born to Be Alive), Amadeo (Moving Like A Superstar), J.J. Lionel (Chicken dance) and the Crazy Horse band, which was partly made up of people from Mouscron.
In 1967, Jimi Hendrix gave his only Belgian concert at the Twenty club. Other artists of the 1960s to have performed in the club include: The Animals, The Small Faces, The Kinks, The Yardbirds, Gene Vincent, The Moody Blues. The latter stayed in Mouscron for the writing of their album “Days of Future Passed”. In 1978, their Song “Top rank suite” alludes to the city's name with the sentence: “They played a good game of football in Mucron”. The Moody Blues were certainly fans of football but they blatantly forgot how to spell the city's name.
Eventually, the beginning of the song “Les Bourgeois” of Jacques Brel, anecdotally mentions the name of “Adrienne du Mont-à-Leux”, who was the owner of a café in the city.
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