Mons (Dutch: Bergen, Picard: Mont) is a Walloon
city and municipality located in the
Belgian
province of
Hainaut
, of which it is the capital. The Mons municipality includes the old communes of Cuesmes
, Flénu
, Ghlin
, Hyon
, Nimy
, Obourg
, Baudour
(partly),
Jemappes
, Ciply
, Harmignies
, Harveng
, Havré
, Maisières
, Mesvin
, Nouvelles
, Saint-Denis
, Saint-Symphorien
, Spiennes
, Villers-Saint-Ghislain
, Casteau
(partly),
Masnuy-Saint-Jean
(partly), and Ville-sur-Haine
(partly).
History
Early settlements to the Middle Ages

The Sainte Waudru collegiate church
and the belfry.
The first
signs of activity in the region of Mons can be found at Spiennes
, where some of the best flint
tools in Europe were found dating from the
Neolithic period. When
Julius Caesar arrived in the region in the 1st
century BC, the region was settled by the
Nervii. A
castrum was built in
Roman times, giving the settlement its
first
Latin name
Castrilocus;
the name was later changed into
Montes for the
hills on which the castrum was built.
In the 7th century,
Saint Ghislain and two of his
disciples built an oratory or
chapel dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul
near the Mons hill, at a place called Ursidongus, now known as
Saint-Ghislain
. Soon after,
Saint
Waltrude (in
French Sainte
Waudru), daughter of one of
Clotaire
II’s intendants, came to the oratory and was proclaimed a saint
upon her death in 688. She was
canonized in 1039.
Like
Ath
, its neighbour to the north-west, Mons was made a
fortified city by Baldwin
IV, Count of Hainaut in the 12th century. The population
grew fast, trade flourished, and several commercial buildings were
erected near the
Grand’Place. The 12th century also saw
the appearance of the first town halls. The city had 4,700
inhabitants by the end of the 13th century.
Mons succeeded
Valenciennes
as the capital of the county of Hainaut in 1295 and
grew to 8,900 inhabitants by the end of the 15th century. In
the 1450s,
Matheus de Layens took
over the construction of the Saint Waltrude church from Jan
Spijkens and restored the town hall.

The central square and town hall of
Mons with the belfry in the background
From 1500 to 1800
In 1515,
Charles V
took an oath in Mons as Count of Hainaut.
In this period of its
history, the city became the target of various occupations,
starting in May 1572 with the Protestant takeover by Louis of Nassau, who had hoped to clear the
way for the French
Protestant
leader Gaspard de Coligny to
oppose Spanish rule. After the murder of
de Coligny during the
St. Bartholomew's Day
massacre, the
Duke of Alba took
control of Mons in September of 1572 in the name of the
catholic King of Spain. This spelled the ruin of the
city and the arrest of many of its inhabitants; from 1580 to 1584,
Mons became the capital of the
Southern Netherlands. On
April 8,
1691, after a
nine-month siege,
Louis XIV’s army stormed
the city, which again suffered heavy casualties.
From 1697 to 1701,
Mons was alternately French or Austrian
. After being under French control from 1701 to
1709, the Dutch
army gained
the upper hand in the Battle of
Malplaquet. In 1715, Mons returned to Austria under the
terms of the
Treaty of Utrecht
(1713). But the French did not give up easily;
Louis XV besieged the city again in 1746.
After the
Battle of Jemappes (1792), the
Hainaut area was annexed to France and Mons became the capital of
the Jemappes
district.
From 1800 to the present

Canadians entering Mons in 1918
(source: Archives of Ontario)
Following the fall of the
First
French Empire in 1814, King
William I of the Netherlands
fortified the city heavily.
In 1830, however, Belgium gained its
independence and the decision was made to dismantle fortified
cities such as Mons, Charleroi
, and Namur
. The
actual removal of fortifications only happened in the 1860s,
allowing the creation of large boulevards and other urban projects.
The
Industrial Revolution and
coal mining made Mons a center of heavy
industry, which strongly influenced the culture and image of the
Borinage
region as a whole. It was to become an
integral part of the sillon
industriel, the industrial backbone of Wallonia
.
On
August 23 and 24, 1914, Mons was the site
of the first
battle
fought by the British
Army in World War I. The
British were forced to
retreat
and the town was occupied by the Germans, until its liberation by
the
Canadian Corps during the final
days of the war. As an important industrial centre, the city was
heavily bombed and several skirmishes took place in September 1944
between the American troops and the retreating German forces. After
the war, most industries went into decline.
NATO
's Supreme
Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
(SHAPE) was relocated in Casteau
, a village near Mons, from Fontainebleau
after France's withdrawal from the military
structure of the alliance in 1967. The relocation of SHAPE
to this particular region of Belgium was largely a political
decision, based in large part on the depressed economic conditions
of the area at the time with the view to bolstering the economy of
the region. A riot in the prison of Mons took place in April 2006
after prisoner complaints concerning living conditions and
treatment; no deaths were reported as a result of the riot, but the
event focused attention on prisons throughout Belgium. Today, the
city is an important university town and commercial centre.
Main sights
The
Spanish House and belfry.
- The Grand Place is the centre of the historic town and
the stage for the annual mock-battle of the Lumeçon.
- The City Hall, originally built near the current location of
the belfry, was moved
on the Grand Place in the 13th century. The flamboyant
gothic building we see today dates from the 15th century. In front
of it stands a statue of a monkey, which is said to bring good
fortune to those who pat his head.
- The collegiate church of Saint Waltrude
is paradoxically a good specimen of the Gothic architecture of Brabant.
- The neighbouring belfry, classified as a World Heritage Site, dates from the 17th
century and is the only Baroque-style belfry
in Belgium.
- The so-called Spanish House dates from the 16th
century.
Festivities
- The Doudou is the name of a
week-long series of festivities or Ducasse, which
originates from the 14th century and takes place every year on
Trinity Sunday. Highlights include:
- The entrusting of the reliquary of
Saint Waltrude to the mayor of the city on the eve of the
procession.
- The placement of the reliquary on the Car d’Or (golden
carriage), before it is carried in the city streets in a colourful
procession that counts more than a
thousand costumed participants.
- The lifting of the Car d’Or on a paved area near the
church of Saint Waltrude; tradition holds that this operation must
be successful for the city to prosper.
- The Lumeçon fight, where Saint
George confronts the dragon. The fight lasts for about half an
hour, accompanied by the rhythmic "Doudou" music. The tradition of
the processional dragon is listed among the Masterpieces
of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Education
There are 3 universities and one conservatory in Mons. They are:
Transportation
Mons is located along
N56
road.
Sports
The town hosts a
football club named
R.A.E.C. Mons.
People born in Mons
- Gilles Binchois, composer (15th
century, birth in Mons is uncertain)
- Orlande de Lassus, composer
(16th century)
- Guido de Bres, theologian (1522 to
31 May 1567)
- Giuseppe Grisoni, painter and
sculptor (17th century)
- François-Joseph
Fétis, musicologist, composer, critic, and teacher (18th
century)
- François-Philippe
de Haussy, first governor of the National Bank of Belgium (18th
century)
- Paul Émile de Puydt,
botanist, economist, and writer (19th century)
- Émile Motte, painter (19th
century)
- Louis Dewis, painter (19th
century)
Twin cities
See also
External links