Cassel

Cassel stands on a hill rising to 176 metres above sea level out of an otherwise flat Flemish plain, which made it strategically important for two thousand years and gives it a view said on clear days to reach into Belgium and toward the sea. On the summit sits a wooden post mill, rebuilt from an original and still milling flour, one of the last working examples in a region that once had thousands. The town below is Flemish in character, with a cobbled square, brick and stone houses and an estaminet culture of small cafes serving local beer and dishes like potjevleesch.

History

In the late Iron Age Mont Cassel was the stronghold of the Menapii, a Belgic tribe whose territory reached from Calais to the Rhine; they submitted to Rome in 53 BC and, after a revolt put down in 30 or 29 BC, their hill became Castellum Menapiorum, the capital of their civitas, from which the town takes its name and on which a network of roads still converges. Germanic invasions at the end of the 3rd century brought decline, walls and the loss of its rank to Tournai. In 864 Cassel passed to Baldwin Ironarm, first count of Flanders; Vikings destroyed it in the 9th century and Arnulf I rebuilt it in the 10th, and in 1071 the first Battle of Cassel saw Robert the Frisian defeat and kill Count Arnulf III, after which the town was refortified with a castle, the Tour Grise, now gone. In the Middle Ages it was the capital of a chatellany of about fifty towns and villages (Wikipedia, Cassel, Nord).

What's there

• The post mill - a working wooden windmill on the summit.
• The plain view - flat Flanders spread out in every direction.
• The cobbled square - the Grand'Place with Flemish facades.
• The estaminets - traditional Flemish cafes serving regional beer and food.

When to go

April to October; the mill runs on set days and not continuously. Carnival in spring, with its giants, is the town's big event. The climb from the station is steep.

Things to know

The climb from the railway station to the town is long and steep. The mill operates on limited days. The town is small and quiet outside carnival.

Nearby

Lille lies southeast; the Belgian border is north.

Key facts