Vieille Bourse

Lille


Ornamented with caryatids and cornucopia, this Flemish Renaissance extravaganza was completed in 1653. It consists of 24 separate houses set around a richly ornamented interior courtyard that hosts a used-book market, chess games and live music in summer.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Lille attractions

1. Opéra

0.05 MILES

Lille's Louis XVI-style opera house was built between 1907 and 1913 by French architect Louis-Marie Cordonnier, who was responsible for many of northern…

2. Chambre de Commerce

0.06 MILES

Designed by architect Louis-Marie Cordonnier and built between 1910 and 1921 in neo-Flemish style, Lille's landmark Chamber of Commerce building is…

4. Musée de l'Hospice Comtesse

0.29 MILES

Within a red-brick 15th- and 17th-century poorhouse, this absorbing museum features ceramics, earthenware wall tiles, religious art, 17th- and 18th…

5. Le Tripostal

0.36 MILES

Splashed with street art murals, this cavernous red-brick postal sorting centre was transformed into an arts centre in 2004, when Lille was the European…

6. Palais des Beaux Arts

0.44 MILES

Inaugurated in 1892, Lille's illustrious Fine Arts Museum claims France's second-largest collection after Paris' Musée du Louvre. Its cache of sublime…

7. Hôtel de Ville

0.5 MILES

Built between 1924 and 1932, Lille's city hall is topped by a slender, 104m-high belfry that was designated a Unesco-listed monument in 2004. Climbing 100…

8. Porte de Paris

0.55 MILES

Rising 32m high and topped by two sculpted angels, this triumphal arch was built between 1685 and 1692 to commemorate Louis XIV's conquest of Lille. Its…