Mons (French: Mons) is a Walloon city in Belgium and the
capital of the province of Hainaut. The city has over 95,000
inhabitants. Saint Waldetrudis is the patron saint of the city. Mons
is the principal town in the Bergen district, and the seat of one of
the country's five courts of appeal.
History
Roman era
The city of Bergen originated on a hilly terrain (hence the
name) between the rivers Hene and Trouille . Despite the discovery
of cemeteries from the 2nd century and the old name "Castri locus"
(that is Camp Place ), which first appears in 642 , the presence of
a Roman army camp at the site of the current city remains a
hypothesis. In any case, the site was located on a diverticulum
(that is "branch" ) from the Roman road Bavay - Asse.
Middle
Ages
It was not until around the middle of the 7th century that
an important city center developed here, around a castle where the
counts lived. This development was partly the result of the
foundation in Frankish times of an abbey , around 650 , by Saint
Waltrude . This monastery would later be reformed in the 11th
century into a chapter of noble secular canons , which continued to
dominate the spiritual life in the city until its dissolution in
1792 .
Around the 10th century , the counts of Bergen built a
fortified castle on the neighboring hill, and under Count Baldwin IV
( 1120 - 1171 ) work began on the construction of a first wall,
parts of which still exist today. This soon allowed the city to
rival Valencijn / Valenciennes , the then capital of the county of
Hainaut.
In 1136 a major city fire took place in Bergen.
Bergen quickly developed into an important administrative, trade
and educational center. Countess Margaret II of Flanders founded a
beguinage in 1248 , and the increase in the population made it
necessary around 1290 to construct a second, larger city wall .
This city wall was about 4.5 km long and had six gates. In 1295 Mons
became the capital of the county of Hainaut. The cloth industry laid
the foundation for an economic boom, which would not end until the
16th century, with the religious troubles .
Eighty Years' War
On May 24, 1572 , Louis of Nassau, at the head of 500 horsemen,
entered the city quite unexpectedly, where he was greeted with
enthusiasm, because the disaffection with Alva 's policy was very
great. This triggered Louis's plan to establish a base of operations
for Gaspard de Coligny 's army , which would harass the Spaniards
from France. However, these auxiliary troops did not show up because
Coligny had been murdered on Bartholomew's Day Night , and Louis,
threatened on all sides, was forced to capitulate and surrender the
besieged Bergen to Alva ( September 19, 1572 ). Despite the promise
of generalamnesty , after the departure of Louis and his troops,
Alva took a bloody revenge. Many of the citizens of Mons were
arrested, tortured and executed, and their property seized. The
prosperity of Bergen, one of the most flourishing industrial cities
in Europe, had been totally destroyed.
17th and 18th
centuries
Immediately a long period began for Bergen in which
the violence of war regularly slowed down the economic recovery. On
April 8, 1691 , Philip Frans van Glymes had to surrender the city to
the French troops (80,000 strong) after a nine-month siege. King
Louis XIV had descended in person on March 15 to attend the military
operations. The French artillery had done a lot of damage all over
the city. Bergen remained French until 1697 , after which it passed
alternately into Austrian and French hands. The French ruled from
1701 to 1709 , and then from 1746 to 1749. Because the military
operations of the 18th century caused so much damage, the city was
mainly rebuilt during that period, making the current townscape
largely 18th century.
In the late 17th century and first half
of the 18th century, Bergen was one of the fortified cities that
formed part of the Dutch fortress barrier in the Southern
Netherlands.
On November 6, 1792 , the Austrians lost the
Battle of Jemappes (now part of Bergen) and had to leave the field
for good.
20th century
At the beginning of the First
World War , the British Expeditionary Force , led by the British
General French, managed to stop the German troops of Von Kluck for
48 hours near Bergen . Bergen was then in German hands for four
years and was finally liberated by Canadians early in the morning of
November 11, 1918 , after three days of fierce fighting.
The Second World War was also murderous for Bergen and the
surrounding area, and caused a lot of human suffering. As an
industrial town and transport hub, it was often heavily bombed, and
from 2 to 4 September 1944 , heavy fighting continued between
American troops (en route from Avesnes and Nouvion ) and German
troops withdrawing from northern France.
The economic crisis
in the second half of the 20th century hit hard for the Bergen
industry and for the entire Borinage . Many brownfields were created
due to factory closures . The reconversion was not without problems,
but in the end tourism and trade were stimulated on the basis of the
cultural heritage. In 1998, for example, the Mundaneum was built and
in 2015, Bergen was the European Capital of Culture with Pilsen.