Kortrijk

Kortrijk stands on the Leie, where a Roman settlement grew at a crossroads of roads through Flanders. Granted a town charter in 1190, it prospered through the making of linen and woollen cloth. The Broel towers recall the defences that protected the expanding town, while its artisans and merchants made it an important centre of the Flemish textile trade.

The fields outside Kortrijk were the scene of the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302, when Flemish forces defeated the knights of the French king. Later in the century, conflict returned: the town fell to the revolt led by Philip van Artevelde in 1381, and was plundered after the rebels' defeat at Roosebeke in 1382. Its position made it vulnerable in later wars between France and the powers of the Low Countries, but its textile craft remained central to the town's life.