The Departmental Council of Nord (French: Conseil départemental du Nord, Picard: Consièl départémintal dech Nord) is the deliberative assembly of the French department of the Nord, the most populous French department. The headquarters of this decentralized local authority are in Lille.
History
Pursuant to a decree of the Constituent Assembly of December 22, 1790, the province of Flanders officially became the Department of Nord on March 4, 1791, with Douai as its capital.[1]
In 1803, the prefect, who then presided over the general council, changed the seat of the council to Lille, the former capital of the province of Flanders, in Hôtel de Roquefeuille, rue Française (now rue Négrier, in Old Lille). However, the premises turned out to be unsuitable and the prefecture was established in 1826 in a large building on rue Royale (today the Bishop's Palace).[5]
From 1860, with the development of the administrative powers and competences of the prefects, the Hôtel de la rue Royale became 'too cramped'.[6] In 1862, the Lille municipality offered a large piece of land, outside the old ramparts, on the still free plots which separated Lille from the municipality of Wazemmes.
On August 15, 1865, Prefect Henri-Alexandre Wallon laid the first stone of the new building on Place Napoléon III, now Place de la République, on the occasion of the Emperor's Day. A lead box enclosed in this stone contains the minutes of the operation and coins of the time bearing the effigy of the Emperor.[7]
Hôtel de la Préfecture du Nord, built in 1872
Throughout the work, many changes were made to the project. Construction took place over several years and it was in 1872 that the Hôtel de la Préfecture was completed and the General Council sat there for the first time.[8]
In 1920, due to the growing development of the departmental administration, the problem of the small size of the premises arose again. In 1932, part of the services of the General Council was annexed to the corner of Boulevard de la Liberté and Rue Baptiste-Monnoyer.[7]
The Forum being demolished
In the early 1970s, a new building, the Forum, was built at the corner of Charles Saint-Venant and Gustave Delory streets.[9] Until 2019, it housed part of the department's central services. Dilapidated, it was demolished in 2021. A reconstruction project is underway on the site.[10]
The latter was raised on rue Gustave-Delory in 1982,[11] in the wake of' the first decentralization laws which entrusted the administration of the general council to an elected president.
The building on the Place de la République, which still belongs to the Nord department today, houses the residence of the prefect of the Nord as well as his services. It still hosts meetings of the departmental council in its former hemicycle.
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