Mons

Mons is the capital of Hainaut province in southwestern Belgium, situated on a knoll between the Trouille and Haine Rivers, at the junction of the Nimy-Blaton Canal and the Canal du Centre. The site was first settled in the 3rd century as a Roman camp, Castrilocus. The modern town grew around an abbey founded in ca. 650 by St. Waudru. In 804 Charlemagne made it the capital of Hainaut. It became a busy trading town in the 14th century with an important cloth market. Often besieged and occupied in wars of the 17th and 18th centuries, it was variously ruled by the French, Spanish, Dutch, and Austrians prior to 1830. It was the site of the first German-British battle of the First World War in 1914, and suffered air bombardment in the Second World War. It is today a center of higher education, featuring among its institutions the State University Centre at Mons, the Polytechnic Faculty, the Academy of Beaux Arts, the Higher Institute of Architecture, and the Royal Conservatory of Music. Its historic architecture includes the collegiate Church of St. Waudru, built between 1450 and 1621, famous for its stained glass and reliquaries, the only Baroque-style belfry in Belgium with its 47-bell carillon, and the town hall built between 1459 and 1467. Though not strictly an industrial city itself, its municipal area includes some industrial zones. The 2003 estimated population was about 91,200.