![[Flag of Tourcoing]](../images/f/fr-59-tc.gif)
by Ivan Sache
Last modified: 2004-04-17 by ivan sache
Keywords: nord | tourcoing | toerkonje | cross (black) | discs: 5 (yellow) |
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by Ivan Sache
Source: TV images
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The city of Tourcoing (Dutch, Toerkonje; 100,000 inhabitants, Tourquennois) is part of the Communauté Urbaine de Lille, formerly known as Lille-Roubaix-Tourcoing. Tourcoing is the capital city of wool industry in France (c.11,500 workers). One third of French carded wool is manufactured in Tourcoing, which is also renown for its carpet, clothing and hosiery factories. In the past, wool was carried in wheelbarrows, in French brouettes, and the inhabitants of the city were nicknamed broutteux.
The belltower (85 m) of the St. Christophe's Church hosts a peal
of 49 bells. In 1971, a bell ringing class was opened in the Music
Academy (Conservatoire) of Tourcoing.
Tourcoing is the birth city of the French musician Albert Roussel
(1869-1937), who wrote several symphonies, symphonic poems
(Evocations, 1911), ballet musics (Le Festin de
l'Araignée, 1913, Bacchus et Ariane, 1931;
Aeneas, 1935), orchestral suites (Suite en Fa, 1926),
and opéra ballets (Padmavati, 1923). Roussel is one of
the best French symphonists of the beginning of the XXth century.
Before being a musician, he was a Cadet in the French Navy, and his
travel impressions inspired his music. The house in which Roussel
spent most of his youth in now the Municipal Museum of Tourcoing.
Ivan Sache, 5 May 2002
The flag of Tourcoing is a banner of the municipal arms. It has a white field with a black cross and three yellow discs in each arm of the cross. The Guide Vert Michelin Flandre Artois Picardie, the source of most of the information presented above, says that the emblem of the city is a wheelbarrow. I guess the guide refers to the municipal logo.
The flag must be very popular because it is used, along with several other flags combining white and green colours, by the supporters of the volley-ball club of Tourcoing.
Ivan Sache, 5 May 2002