Kortrijk, an introduction to my home town
Kortrijk Travel Blog
› entry 1 of 17 › view all entriesMarch 10th, 2009 – by: lamadude

The central square of Kortrijk
The city is actually one of the oldest in Belgium, its name is Latin in origin and was founded as "Cortoriacum" which means "settlement near a bend in the river" but the age of the town is not very apparent in the city centre since it was badly damaged during both world wars. Nevertheless, some of the medieval city center remains, including some churches, the begijnhof (beguinage) which is unesco world heritage, and the broel towers over the river which are the symbol of the city.
The opening of the borders within the Schengen zone in the 90's had a positive impact on the quality of life of the people of Kortrijk, living 50 km from the Dutch border and a mere 9 km from the French border I remember it being a real hassle to constantly having to pass border checks. The state border is also a linguistic one, with the Dutch speaking town of Kortrijk lying only 20 km away from the northern French city of Lille, which I will definitely talk of later. This has as an effect that for example in shops nobody will look surprised if you start speaking English or French instead of Dutch.
In the following blogposts I will have a closer look at some interesting things to visit in Kortrijk, before exploring the places further away, hope you enjoy it!

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