Old Lille — The Spectre of Jeanne

Your investigation begins in the inner courtyard of the Vieille Bourse, built between 1652 and 1656 by Lille architect Julien de la Haye under Spanish rule. This 2,800 m² arcaded gallery directly inspired by Place des Vosges in Paris hides a secret: it housed Lille's first post office in 1653, where secret correspondence between Flanders and Burgundy transited. The 24 identical houses surrounding it, classified as Historic Monument in 1923, still bear the coats of arms of Flemish guilds that financed Joan of Constantinople's charitable works.

Palais Rihour reveals its flamboyant Gothic mysteries, sole vestige of the ducal palace built from 1454 by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. This chapel, classified as Historic Monument in 1889, served as a prison during the French Revolution in 1793, imprisoning the last nobles who held the Hospice Comtesse archives. In its vaults still echo Joan's prayers, who came here to implore divine protection before her diplomatic missions to the Orient, from where she brought back Byzantine hospital techniques that she adapted to Lille.

Rue de la Grande Chaussée immerses you in the alignment of 18th-century baroque mansions, restored in the 1930s and registered in the Old Lille protected sector since 1964. This 300-meter cobbled artery, bordered by typically Flemish stepped gable facades, was the ancient royal road taken by Joan to reach her Flanders lands from the comital castle. The vaulted cellars of these patrician residences preserve the foundations of medieval hospices she had built for pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela.

On Rue des Vieux Murs, vestiges of 13th-century medieval ramparts still integrate into the facades of this narrow 150-meter street. These brick and stone walls date from the 1490 enclosure, but their foundations go back to Joan of Constantinople's time, who had Lille fortified against English invasions. Registered in the protected sector in 1964, this street testifies to Flemish defensive urbanism where each bourgeois house participated in the fortified system, housing the countess's soldiers in their upper floors.

The Hospice Comtesse, founded in 1237 by Joan of Constantinople, crowns your journey in the current buildings constructed between 1667 and 1684 by the sisters of the Vieille-Église. Classified as Historic Monument in 1882, it displays 250 Delft ceramics in the former patients' hall, testifying to Flemish influence on hospital decorative arts. You take away from this investigation the revelation of a medieval Lille where religious, civil and military architecture intertwined under the impetus of a visionary woman, whose charitable legacy crosses eight centuries of urban history.