A French-speaking Flemish town
Tournai is a French-speaking town of Belgium. The local language is tournaisien, a Picard dialect similar to that of other communes of Hainaut and Northern France.
Tournai belongs to Romance Flanders, like Lille, Douai, Tourcoing, and Mouscron. The city of Tournai was one of the greatest cultural and economic centers of the County of Flanders. Some traces can still be seen today:
� The gothic choir of Our Lady's Cathedral is a precursory element of the Scaldian (meaning from the Scheldt area), typically Flemish, Gothic art.
� The bishopric of Tournai was the religious capital of Flanders during more than a millennium (from 496 to 1559).
� The tapestries and draperies of Tournai belong to the great Flemish school of tapestry and Tournai was part of the Flemish Hansa of London, which also included the draper towns of Flanders.
� The Saint-Brice church of Tournai, dedicated to Saint Britius, is one of the first examples of the hallekerk style, so typical of the Flemish countryside.
� Some of the great Flemish Primitives are from Tournai: Robert Campin, Roger van der Weyden, Jacques Daret.
Although Tournai is in the Flemish cultural area (of the Scheldt), it also possesses some treasures of the Mosan style. Indeed, the two most beautiful shrines of the Cathedral, commissioned by the Bishop of Tournai, were made in the region of Li�ge by the artist Nicholas of Verdun: the shrines of Saint-Eleutherius and of Our Lady of Flanders (13th century). Those shrines testify to the opulence of the towns of Tournai and Li�ge during the Middle-Ages. The shrine of Our Lady of Flanders has been called one of the seven wonders of Belgium.
Festivities
� The "Great Procession" (in French: Grande Procession) has taken place every year since 1092, with the single
