Explorer Lille

The Grand Place, officially Place du Général-de-Gaulle, is Lille's historic main square, laid out as a market place in the Middle Ages. It is framed by Flemish-style facades including the 17th-century Vieille Bourse and the Théâtre du Nord, and at its centre stands the Column of the Goddess, raised in 1845 to honour the city's resistance in the siege of 1792.

The Vieille Bourse is Lille's former merchants' exchange, built in 1652–1653 to plans by Julien Destrée while the city was under Spanish rule. Its carved and painted Flemish Renaissance facades belong to a ring of identical houses around an arcaded courtyard, where second-hand booksellers, flower sellers and chess players gather.

The Church of Saint-Maurice is a Gothic hall church in the centre of Lille, built in stages from the late 14th century to the 1870s. Its nave and four aisles rise to the same height, and an ambulatory with radiating chapels closes the east end. The city architect Philippe Cannissié added the western bays and the bell tower with its openwork spire in 1867–1877.

Lille Cathedral, Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille, is a Gothic Revival church begun in 1854 to house a 12th-century statue of the Virgin long venerated in the city. Built in stages over almost 150 years, it became a cathedral in 1913, and its modern west front, designed by architect Pierre-Louis Carlier with engineer Peter Rice, was completed in 1999.

The Citadel of Lille is a pentagonal fortress built from 1667 to 1670 to plans by Vauban after Louis XIV took the city, and Vauban called it the queen of citadels. It still houses an army headquarters, so the interior is closed to casual visitors; the moats, brick ramparts and the Porte Royale gate can be seen from the surrounding park.