Département: Nord
Lille, the largest city in French Flanders, chief town of the Nord département, the see of a bishop and a university town, lies near the Belgian frontier on the canalized river Deule. It is the center of a large industrial area with a population of
around a million, in which the textile, chemical and engineering industries predominate.
Lille has few medieval buildings, and the pattern of the city center is set by a number of imposing 19th century buildings. General de Gaulle was born in Lille in 1890.
Lille, for long the capital of the County of Flanders, finally passed to France under the treaty of Utrecht in 1713. The earlier form of the name was L'Isle, reflecting its situation on an "island" between the Deule and the Lys.
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