Tournai

Introducing Tournai

As provincial towns in Wallonia go, Tournai (Doornik in Flemish) is decidedly pleasant. Situated on the Scheldt River (known as L’Escaut in French), just 10km from the French border and 80km from Brussels, its air is distinctly French and it offers a gaggle of great museums plus one of the country’s finest cathedrals.

Together with Tongeren in Flanders, Tournai rates as Belgium’s oldest city. It started life as a Roman trading settlement known as Tornacum but, unlike Tongeren, it has little to hark back to these times. The rest of its history is as chequered as Belgium’s – the counts of Flanders as well as the French, English, Spanish and Austrians have all had a hand in ruling it over the centuries. In the 5th century it was the relatively short-lived capital of the Merovingians, a Frankish dynasty that reigned in France. Their most celebrated king, Clovis, was born here in 465. In the early 14th century, in Henry VIII’s time, it had a brief spell as an English city, but five years later was sold back to France. The city, in 1521, was then swallowed by the Hapsburg empire, after which it became an important tapestry-making centre.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009