Mons

Mons is also an important junction on the railroad between Brussels and Paris, and has considerable cultural and scientific institutions including the University Center, founded in 1965, the Royal Music Conservatory, an academy of fine arts, a mining academy and a research institute for nuclear technology. There are also a number of interesting museums and several large libraries.

Industry plays only a minor role in the economic life of Mons. There are factories producing textiles and leather goods and some smaller pharmaceutical and metalworking concerns. In the inland harbor of the town, which is linked with the Scheldt and the Charleroi-Brussels canal by a branch canal, the principal traffic is coal from the Borinage.

Mons owes its origin to a castle first mentioned in 642 and to the monastery founded a little later by the patroness of the town, St Waltrud (French Waudru). At this time it was called "Castri Locus" and kept this name until the 12th C. when the first town wall was built. After a period of great prosperity in the 13th-15th C. - in 1295 Mons became the capital of the county of Hennegau - the town suffered considerably in the wars of the 17th and 18th C. From the end of the 17th C. it came in succession under the domination of France, Spain and Austria and endured several sieges including one in 1691 by 80,000 French under Louis XV who, after his victory, gave Mons its present-day aspect. In nearby Jemappes the French revolutionaries beat the Austrians in 1792 and once more gained domination over the country. During both World Wars the town was on many occasions the target for heavy bombing attacks which caused great destruction. It was the first large Belgian town to be freed by the Allies in 1944.

The best known citizen of the town is the composer Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594), who became director of music in the court of Munich.