The Siege
The siege of September 1792 was one of the many battles fought during the French Revolutionary Wars and considered a major event in the city's history by its inhabitants, despite its relatively low military significance on a wider scale.
A few months earlier, in April 1792, French forces in the same area did not conduct themselves well - fleeing after a skirmish with Austrian forces and afterwards killing their own commander, Théobald Dillon. This might have made the Austrians expect an easy victory, which as it turned out was not the case.
An Austrian army besieged the city of Lille. For nine days and nights, the Austrians bombarded the city without intermission, but had ultimately to raise the siege, faced with the determined resistance of the citizens, led by Mayor François André. They Austrians did destroy many houses and the main church (Saint-Etienne) of the city, which was on the Grand′ Place (today the Place du Général de Gaulle).
Read more about this topic: Column Of The Goddess
Famous quotes containing the word siege:
“One likes people much better when they’re battered down by a prodigious siege of misfortune than when they triumph.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)