History of a network of towns

Above and beyond the consultation of ancient maps, modern interpretation allows us to identify the major issues of the territory throughout key periods of history: the Gallo-Roman, Medieval, Modern, Industrial and Contemporary eras.

The Gallo-Roman map presents the towns on a background of the final marine transgression and the network of the Roman roads. In Gallia Belgica, an outlying province in a Mediterranean-driven world, the towns are relatively few in number. They are concentrated in the the country's interior, the marshy coastal areas not enabling humans to settle perennially.

In the 4th Century, the hierarchy of towns was transposed in the dispersion between provincial capitals (Cologne, Reims, Treviso), civitates (Tongres, Tournai, Thérouanne, Cambrai, Saint-Quentin) and civi (Boulogne, Courtrai, Cassel, Bavay, Maastricht, for example).

• Gallo-Roman era
• Industrial era
• Medieval times
• Modern Period