Lille used to be one of the main cities of the County of Flanders. Its Dutch name was Rijsel, but it was always a French speaking city. At the moment it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region and the fourth most populated city in France.
After the Franco-Flemish War, Flanders managed to regain its independence but lost Lille and the area around to France, but only until 1369 as it would take yet centuries for Lille to become definitely part of France.
https://i.nostr.build/VDV0.jpg *The Old Stock Exchange of Lille, France. *
The County of Flanders wasn’t at war only with the Kingdom of France, but also with its archenemy, the County of Holland. They fought for decades over the County of Zeeland. Holland managed to conquer it in 1256 and in 1323 the Count of Flanders reneged from claims on Zeeland and recognized the Count of Holland as Count of Zeeland.
https://i.nostr.build/rY30.jpg Westkapelle, Zeeland
Het Zwin (Golden Inlet), the tidal inlet of Bruges, was crucial to the development of local commerce and the city’s prosperity. Starting around 1500, the Zwin channel began silting up and the Golden Era of Bruges and Flanders as a whole ended. The city soon fell behind Antwerp as the economic flagship of the Low Countries.
https://i.nostr.build/yj9k.jpg Het Zwin Nature Reserve
The present-day Zwin nature reserve was founded in 1952. It has an area of 1.25 square kilometres in Knokke-Heist, Belgium and 0.33 square kilometres in Sluis, The Netherlands. It is famous for its large variety in salt-resistant flora, such as sea lavender. It is also popular with bird watchers.
https://i.nostr.build/g9X6.jpg Het Zwin Nature Reserve
Antwerp (Antwerpen in Dutch) is the most populous municipality in Belgium and the second-largest metropolitan region after Brussels.
At the end of the 10th century, the Scheldt river became the boundary of the Holy Roman Empire. In 980 Antwerp became a margraviate (a border province) facing the County of Flanders and the Kingdom of France.
https://i.nostr.build/D8Y9.jpg Antwerp
Het Steen is a medieval fortress in Antwerp, Belgium. The castle has its origins in the Carolingian period in the 9th century. The surviving structure was built between 1200 and 1225 as a gateway to a larger castle of the Dukes of Brabant which was demolished in the 19th century. Het Steen is Antwerp’s oldest building and used to be part of its oldest urban center.
https://i.nostr.build/0mkX.jpg Het Steen Castle in Antwerp
The Margraviate of Antwerp became part of the Duchy of Brabant in 1190. After the silting-up of the Zwin and the consequent decline of Bruges, Antwerp grew in importance. At the end of the 15th century the foreign trading houses were transferred from Bruges to Antwerp. During this time, the old Mediterranean trade routes were gradually losing importance and the discovery of new sea routes via Africa to Asia and via the Atlantic to America helped push Antwerp to a position of prominence.
https://i.nostr.build/Kowv.jpg Sunset in Antwerp
The Duchy of Brabant was a state of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1183. It developed from the union of the Landgraviate of Brabant, the Margraviate of Antwerp and the Counties of Leuven and Brussels. It formed the heart of the historic Low Countries. Today all the duchy’s former territories are in Belgium except for the Dutch province of North Brabant.
https://i.nostr.build/5Vlv.jpg The Palace of The Dukes of Brabant in Turnhout, Belgium
Leuven is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant with a little more than 100k inhabitants. In the middle ages it was the most important center of trade in the Duchy of Brabant between the 11th and 14th centuries.
https://i.nostr.build/On7Q.jpg Leuven
In the 15th century a new golden era began in Leuven with the founding of the largest and oldest university in the Low Countries in 1425.
By the turn of the 16th century, Leuven had become a major European center for art and knowledge with humanists like Erasmus and Hieronymus van Busleyden working there. In 1517 the latter founded the Collegium Trilingue in which the three ancient languages: Latin, Greek and Hebrew were taught. It promoted the critical study of classical literature and the Bible.
Religious persecutions of Protestants, followed by greater religious and political turmoil starting in the late 1560s, greatly affected intellectual life in Leuven. Many professors and alumni moved abroad. The newly founded University of Leiden in Holland, amongst others, would profit greatly from this brain drain.
https://i.nostr.build/BlqK.jpg *The central library of the Catholic University of Leuven *
