Audomarois-online, le site officiel du Tourisme dans l'Audomarois en Région Nord-Pas-de-Calais

The Belfry
Guided tour of the Belfry of Easter at at the end of September saturdays with 15h and Sunday with 11h July and August: Monday at Friday with 16h30 (departure with the office of tourism). Greeting of the groups on return - you information with the office of tourism - Tel.: 03 28 43 81 00.

A beautiful history
The History of the Belfry merges with that of the Flanders until 1678, date of its fastening in the Flanders. The City occupies a typical situation, since it is with the nap of a coline. Bailleul, during its history, particularly suffered from the fires, which had with the imprudence of the inhabitants and the rage of the enemies. The city occupies a typical situation: at the node of a hill. A hill which is only 44 meters height and is not, in fact, which part of the septentrional edge of the plain of the Lily This situation had to facilitate formerly, the defense of an agglomeration which, unlike Ypres, never was really strengthened. A disadvantage however:la shortage of drinking water, because the clay which constitutes the basement of the city is impermeable. When industry developed, for XIXème century, it was necessary to collect the water which came out of the sandy slopes of the Mount-Black, to establish the bulky one - and disgracieux - water towers at the highest point of Bailleul. Then to make come essential liquid from the borders of the Flanders and Artois. Bailleul, during its history, particularly suffered from the fires, which had with the imprudence of the inhabitants or the rage of the enemies. This plague was particularly frequent and serious in the old times when the houses were of thatch and frame. In 1213, the day before the battle of Bouvines, Philippe-Auguste, king de France, furious to see the count of Flanders, Ferrand, to be combined with his English and German adversaries, load his son, the future Louis VII of a punitive forwarding... " lesquel Louys, tells a chronicler, brusla Bailleul where fire was caught with such a vehemence that ledict Louys had sorrow to save fury of icelui fire ". Two centuries later, in 1436, they are English roughneck soldiers who put fire at the city after having plundered it. In 1478, the French return... Louis XI their ordered to make the most possible evil with the Flemings who recognized for sovereign Maximilien de Habsbourg, the new husband of their princess, Marie of Burgundy, girl of Charles the Bold one; March 19, Bailleul is put at fire and blood. In 1503, first great accidental disaster; the belfry itself is the prey of the flames. It burns again, with hundreds of other buildings, when, 80 years later, Gueux, insurgent calvinists devastate the city. In 1659, a French tape, come from Bassée, after having plundered hotels and churches, puts fire at Bailleul, on all sides at the same time: 470 houses, 4 mills are the prey of the flames. More devastator still was the " meschief " of May 8 1681. The fire was declared in a brewery, street of Ypres. Carried by a violent one wind East, the sparks reflect fire, by here, by there, with the thatch of the roofs. The Town hall was the first set ablaze monument; the bells of the belfry melted and drained in extreme tears... Then it was the church Saint-Vaast, the college of the Jesuits, the principal convents. Eight arteries, with 488 houses, disappeared completely in the flames. The sources of the richness - breweries, weaving looms, raw material stocks - were devastated. And there was 23 died and more than one hundred wounded. It was necessary to await then the beginning of XXème century so that Bailleul knew the test of fire again, for the tenth time of its history. The history of Bailleul merges with that of the Flanders, from which it shared the fastes and the vicissitudes. Its name - carried to France by 17 communes - appears for the first time in the texts into 1093, in the form of " Bailgiole ", which one does not know too much if it is of Latin or Celtic origin... It seems well that there was an agglomeration in these places as of IXème century. In 1777, the count authorizes the middle-class men to raise a belfry. In 1249, it grants a charter to them - " Keuren " - which specifies their legal privileges, economic and tax. To XVème century, Bailleul and its chatellery will contribute, with the 17 principalities of the Netherlands, with the fortune and the glory of the dukes of Burgundy. Habsbourg will succeed those and Bailleulois will be able to acclaim their emperor Charles Quint, in visit: the street of the Emperor points out his memory. At the end of XVIème century, the city will suffer from the disorders caused by the religious aspirations of the calvinists, the claims of the poor, the ambitions political of the aristocrats and the intolerant rigour of the Count, Philippe II of Spain. The happy reign of his/her daughter, the Isabelle archduchess, will be translated at the beginning of XVIIème century by the restoration of the majority of the public, civil and religious buildings, and by the establishment of the college of the Jesuits. Then will come one period from insecurity: at the time of the wars between the king of France and the House of Spain, by the fastening of the châtellenie of Bailleul in France, the Treaty of Nimègue of 1678. Louis XIV had already come there into 1671. It is in Bailleul that will meet, February 19, 1789, the voters who were to name the representatives of the Clergy, the Nobility and the Third-State of the maritime Flanders in the States Généraux, whose meeting was to be the starter of the French revolution. Several time and in various ways, Bailleul was made known in Occident by the value of the products manufactured by his/her children. In XIIIème and XIVème centuries, it was thanks to cloths, parts of wool, dyed in red, of a so good quality which the city was allowed in famous commercial association, known as Hanse of London, which controlled, under the impulse of Bruges, trade with England from which came the raw material. From XVIème century, the wool was gradually replaced by the flax, cultivated in our areas and rouï in the rivers and the ponds close. It gave place to a speciality which made of the XVII in XIXème century the reputation of Bailleul: lace with the spindles. The first school lacemaker was founded into 1664. In 1789, one counted, in the city and with the surroundings, a good thousand of lacemakers. After having known prosperity in the medium of XIXème century, this work of art, having subjected to the competition of the machine, knew a rapid decline. In 1983, there remains a school including/understanding an instructress, a score of adults, about thirty children who make lace an artistic leisure. Earthenware constituted, in XVIIIème century, the third manufacture: pots, jugs, dishes, statuettes decorated the made-to-order of Rouen, contributed to decorate the metal plaques of Flanders and carried to far the reputation from Bailleul until the medium of XIXème century. In XIXème century, textile industry reappeared in the form of weavings of fabrics, initially with the hand, then with the mechanical trade. Lastly, between 1889 and 1918, Bailleul had, under hectares of greenhouses, an original production of grapes of table and forced fruits. After having known the decline of the textile, of which it does not remain any more in 1983 but one cotton-spinning, industry bailleuloise account currently of the food factories - canning facilities and dairy products, as well as factories of textile and paper. In addition, the psychiatric Hospital (Specialized Hospital complex) offers very many employment. This industrial and commercial expansion was obstructed a long time by the precariousness of the transportation communication channels, especially at a time when the Plain of the Lily was transformed into marsh a good half of the year. Passed by Bailleul only one bad dirt track, until 1756 when was finished the new road paved from Lille in Dunkirk which replaced the old one, passing by Ypres and Poperinghe, cities remained Austrian after the fixing of the border in 1713. And if boats then borrowed the becque one of Steenwerck to join the Lily, the project to make of it a channel, outlined in 1849, was never carried out. It is true that, this same year, the railroad, arrived at the foot of the hillock, connected Bailleul in Lille and Dunkirk. The current face of Bailleul was given to him, sixty years ago, after a catastrophe which had involved the quasi total destruction of the old city, ten century old fruit of joint efforts. This catastrophe lasted five months, of April 9 at September 5, 1918. Already, four years before, the city had been occupied by the Germans from the 7 to October 14, 1914. Released by the British, it had become the district-General of the armies of the French General. Was there also a camp of instruction where ravelled English, Écossais, Welsh, Irish, Canadian, Australiens, Néo-zélandais, South-Africans and " Hindus ", as one said then. Often, the city had been bombarded by the large German pieces of artillery installed in Lomme and Wambrechies. April 9, 1918, the Germans hustled the allied troops which held the face of the Lily; April 15, after having taken Ravensberg, it occupied Bailleul, already in ruins. Consequently, this debris will be turned over by the English shells sent of Cassel or of Mount-of-Cats. When the city is released, September 5, 1918, one will find only some rare houses upright! All the files would have been destroyed except for those for State-Civil which had been moved. Hardly its completed restoration, Bailleul suffered from the second world war, in particular under the German air raids of the last days of May 1940. Today, Bailleul is a commune of 13 418 inhabitants (1982), divided on a vast territory which covers 4 400 hectares and includes/understands variations, such as the hamlets of Crêche, Steent' I and Outtersteene, which are autonomous parishes. Active and dynamic city, Bailleul is the gate and the key of the Mounts of Flanders. The rebuilding was started since 1920, under the impulse of the Mayor of then, Natalis Dumez - which had, during the second world war to illustrate itself in Resistance by melting the movement " Voice of North " -. According to the example of the city-sister, Ypres, which had been also shaven, Bailleulois wanted to give to their new city a frankly Flemish aspect: they thus asked their architects to take as a starting point the the frontages of Bruges, as of XVIème and XVIIème centuries, of structures gothic script and Renaissance decoration, reorganized, sometimes wrongly, in XIXème under the influence of the baron de Béthune, emulates Belgian Purple Duke. What was made while resorting to traditional materials: the brick of Flanders and sandstone of Artois. From there comes the uniform aspect from the houses of the center of the city and the principal public buildings. A uniformity in the elegance and the charm of the not-of-sparrow pinions and the decoration baroque. The plan of the city hardly undergoes modifications on this occasion. It had not admittedly changed during previous centuries since the day when a ground cutting off had girdled Grand' Place and the monuments which are drawn up there, of the end of the street of Occident to the starter of the street of Ypres. These arteries and some others, whose street of Lille, street of Cassel and street of the Fullers, had lengthened then. It is into 1621 that was bored the street of the College, then street of the Jesuits, which was prolonged until the Small Place, today Place Plichon, in 1757. In 1630, appears the current street Edmond de Coussemacker under the name of street of Poisson: it had taken the place of the ditch, which encircled the town of this side. And had to be waited until 1849 to see appearing the long street of the Station, going to the meeting of the railroad which had not wanted to climb on the hill!



Bailleul, une ville à la campagne aux cœurs des Monts de Flandres

Historique - Musée - Dentelles - Nature - Gargantua Le Mont des Cats - Le Mont Noir

		Bailleul and the Mounts of Flandres Like a foot of nose to the tragic past, Bailleul from its architectural beauty, shines of thousand fires. The history of Bailleul merges with that of the Flanders until 1678, date of its fastening in France. Destroyed eight times during its history, its rebuilding after 1918 enabled him to find a coherent town planning with the Flemish character (frontage and monuments with the Gothic windows and be worth pinions with " step of sparrows "). The Town hall and its Belfry In the heart of the city, this true architectural colossus was built in a style néo-Flemish marked by the alternation of the stone, brick and slate. With its base, a Gothic room of XVIIIème century is classified historic building. The frontage is decorated of elegant a bretèche (balcony of proclamations). The hall of the town hall, old Market with cloths recalls that with the Middle Ages, Bailleul knew its hours of glory thanks to its membership of famous Hanse of London. Since the covered way of the belfry, one admires the panorama of all the area ranging between the hills of Artois, with the south, and the Mounts of Flanders in north. Town hall open of Monday to Friday of 8h à12h and 13h30 with 17h30, saturdays of 8h30 à12h.

The Belfry Guided tour of the Belfry of Easter at at the end of September saturdays with 15h and Sunday with 11h July and August: Monday at Friday with 16h30 (departure with the office of tourism). Greeting of the groups on return - you information with the office of tourism - Tel.: 03 28 43 81 00. A beautiful history The History of the Belfry merges with that of the Flanders until 1678, date of its fastening in the Flanders. The City occupies a typical situation, since it is with the nap of a coline. Bailleul, during its history, particularly suffered from the fires, which had with the imprudence of the inhabitants and the rage of the enemies. The city occupies a typical situation: at the node of a hill. A hill which is only 44 meters height and is not, in fact, which part of the septentrional edge of the plain of the Lily This situation had to facilitate formerly, the defense of an agglomeration which, unlike Ypres, never was really strengthened. A disadvantage however:la shortage of drinking water, because the clay which constitutes the basement of the city is impermeable. When industry developed, for XIXème century, it was necessary to collect the water which came out of the sandy slopes of the Mount-Black, to establish the bulky one - and disgracieux - water towers at the highest point of Bailleul. Then to make come essential liquid from the borders of the Flanders and Artois. Bailleul, during its history, particularly suffered from the fires, which had with the imprudence of the inhabitants or the rage of the enemies. This plague was particularly frequent and serious in the old times when the houses were of thatch and frame. In 1213, the day before the battle of Bouvines, Philippe-Auguste, king de France, furious to see the count of Flanders, Ferrand, to be combined with his English and German adversaries, load his son, the future Louis VII of a punitive forwarding... " lesquel Louys, tells a chronicler, brusla Bailleul where fire was caught with such a vehemence that ledict Louys had sorrow to save fury of icelui fire ". Two centuries later, in 1436, they are English roughneck soldiers who put fire at the city after having plundered it. In 1478, the French return... Louis XI their ordered to make the most possible evil with the Flemings who recognized for sovereign Maximilien de Habsbourg, the new husband of their princess, Marie of Burgundy, girl of Charles the Bold one; March 19, Bailleul is put at fire and blood. In 1503, first great accidental disaster; the belfry itself is the prey of the flames. It burns again, with hundreds of other buildings, when, 80 years later, Gueux, insurgent calvinists devastate the city. In 1659, a French tape, come from Bassée, after having plundered hotels and churches, puts fire at Bailleul, on all sides at the same time: 470 houses, 4 mills are the prey of the flames. More devastator still was the " meschief " of May 8 1681. The fire was declared in a brewery, street of Ypres. Carried by a violent one wind East, the sparks reflect fire, by here, by there, with the thatch of the roofs. The Town hall was the first set ablaze monument; the bells of the belfry melted and drained in extreme tears... Then it was the church Saint-Vaast, the college of the Jesuits, the principal convents. Eight arteries, with 488 houses, disappeared completely in the flames. The sources of the richness - breweries, weaving looms, raw material stocks - were devastated. And there was 23 died and more than one hundred wounded. It was necessary to await then the beginning of XXème century so that Bailleul knew the test of fire again, for the tenth time of its history. The history of Bailleul merges with that of the Flanders, from which it shared the fastes and the vicissitudes. Its name - carried to France by 17 communes - appears for the first time in the texts into 1093, in the form of " Bailgiole ", which one does not know too much if it is of Latin or Celtic origin... It seems well that there was an agglomeration in these places as of IXème century. In 1777, the count authorizes the middle-class men to raise a belfry. In 1249, it grants a charter to them - " Keuren " - which specifies their legal privileges, economic and tax. To XVème century, Bailleul and its chatellery will contribute, with the 17 principalities of the Netherlands, with the fortune and the glory of the dukes of Burgundy. Habsbourg will succeed those and Bailleulois will be able to acclaim their emperor Charles Quint, in visit: the street of the Emperor points out his memory. At the end of XVIème century, the city will suffer from the disorders caused by the religious aspirations of the calvinists, the claims of the poor, the ambitions political of the aristocrats and the intolerant rigour of the Count, Philippe II of Spain. The happy reign of his/her daughter, the Isabelle archduchess, will be translated at the beginning of XVIIème century by the restoration of the majority of the public, civil and religious buildings, and by the establishment of the college of the Jesuits. Then will come one period from insecurity: at the time of the wars between the king of France and the House of Spain, by the fastening of the châtellenie of Bailleul in France, the Treaty of Nimègue of 1678. Louis XIV had already come there into 1671. It is in Bailleul that will meet, February 19, 1789, the voters who were to name the representatives of the Clergy, the Nobility and the Third-State of the maritime Flanders in the States Généraux, whose meeting was to be the starter of the French revolution. Several time and in various ways, Bailleul was made known in Occident by the value of the products manufactured by his/her children. In XIIIème and XIVème centuries, it was thanks to cloths, parts of wool, dyed in red, of a so good quality which the city was allowed in famous commercial association, known as Hanse of London, which controlled, under the impulse of Bruges, trade with England from which came the raw material. From XVIème century, the wool was gradually replaced by the flax, cultivated in our areas and rouï in the rivers and the ponds close. It gave place to a speciality which made of the XVII in XIXème century the reputation of Bailleul: lace with the spindles. The first school lacemaker was founded into 1664. In 1789, one counted, in the city and with the surroundings, a good thousand of lacemakers. After having known prosperity in the medium of XIXème century, this work of art, having subjected to the competition of the machine, knew a rapid decline. In 1983, there remains a school including/understanding an instructress, a score of adults, about thirty children who make lace an artistic leisure. Earthenware constituted, in XVIIIème century, the third manufacture: pots, jugs, dishes, statuettes decorated the made-to-order of Rouen, contributed to decorate the metal plaques of Flanders and carried to far the reputation from Bailleul until the medium of XIXème century. In XIXème century, textile industry reappeared in the form of weavings of fabrics, initially with the hand, then with the mechanical trade. Lastly, between 1889 and 1918, Bailleul had, under hectares of greenhouses, an original production of grapes of table and forced fruits. After having known the decline of the textile, of which it does not remain any more in 1983 but one cotton-spinning, industry bailleuloise account currently of the food factories - canning facilities and dairy products, as well as factories of textile and paper. In addition, the psychiatric Hospital (Specialized Hospital complex) offers very many employment. This industrial and commercial expansion was obstructed a long time by the precariousness of the transportation communication channels, especially at a time when the Plain of the Lily was transformed into marsh a good half of the year. Passed by Bailleul only one bad dirt track, until 1756 when was finished the new road paved from Lille in Dunkirk which replaced the old one, passing by Ypres and Poperinghe, cities remained Austrian after the fixing of the border in 1713. And if boats then borrowed the becque one of Steenwerck to join the Lily, the project to make of it a channel, outlined in 1849, was never carried out. It is true that, this same year, the railroad, arrived at the foot of the hillock, connected Bailleul in Lille and Dunkirk. The current face of Bailleul was given to him, sixty years ago, after a catastrophe which had involved the quasi total destruction of the old city, ten century old fruit of joint efforts. This catastrophe lasted five months, of April 9 at September 5, 1918. Already, four years before, the city had been occupied by the Germans from the 7 to October 14, 1914. Released by the British, it had become the district-General of the armies of the French General. Was there also a camp of instruction where ravelled English, Écossais, Welsh, Irish, Canadian, Australiens, Néo-zélandais, South-Africans and " Hindus ", as one said then. Often, the city had been bombarded by the large German pieces of artillery installed in Lomme and Wambrechies. April 9, 1918, the Germans hustled the allied troops which held the face of the Lily; April 15, after having taken Ravensberg, it occupied Bailleul, already in ruins. Consequently, this debris will be turned over by the English shells sent of Cassel or of Mount-of-Cats. When the city is released, September 5, 1918, one will find only some rare houses upright! All the files would have been destroyed except for those for State-Civil which had been moved. Hardly its completed restoration, Bailleul suffered from the second world war, in particular under the German air raids of the last days of May 1940. Today, Bailleul is a commune of 13 418 inhabitants (1982), divided on a vast territory which covers 4 400 hectares and includes/understands variations, such as the hamlets of Crêche, Steent' I and Outtersteene, which are autonomous parishes. Active and dynamic city, Bailleul is the gate and the key of the Mounts of Flanders. The rebuilding was started since 1920, under the impulse of the Mayor of then, Natalis Dumez - which had, during the second world war to illustrate itself in Resistance by melting the movement " Voice of North " -. According to the example of the city-sister, Ypres, which had been also shaven, Bailleulois wanted to give to their new city a frankly Flemish aspect: they thus asked their architects to take as a starting point the the frontages of Bruges, as of XVIème and XVIIème centuries, of structures gothic script and Renaissance decoration, reorganized, sometimes wrongly, in XIXème under the influence of the baron de Béthune, emulates Belgian Purple Duke. What was made while resorting to traditional materials: the brick of Flanders and sandstone of Artois. From there comes the uniform aspect from the houses of the center of the city and the principal public buildings. A uniformity in the elegance and the charm of the not-of-sparrow pinions and the decoration baroque. The plan of the city hardly undergoes modifications on this occasion. It had not admittedly changed during previous centuries since the day when a ground cutting off had girdled Grand' Place and the monuments which are drawn up there, of the end of the street of Occident to the starter of the street of Ypres. These arteries and some others, whose street of Lille, street of Cassel and street of the Fullers, had lengthened then. It is into 1621 that was bored the street of the College, then street of the Jesuits, which was prolonged until the Small Place, today Place Plichon, in 1757. In 1630, appears the current street Edmond de Coussemacker under the name of street of Poisson: it had taken the place of the ditch, which encircled the town of this side. And had to be waited until 1849 to see appearing the long street of the Station, going to the meeting of the railroad which had not wanted to climb on the hill!