The Golden Spurs and linen heritage — where Flemish peasants defeated French knights
Kortrijk (French: Courtrai) is a West Flemish city famous above all for the Battle of the Golden Spurs (11 July 1302), when a Flemish peasant army defeated the flower of French knighthood and hung 700 gilded spurs from the church as trophies — an event so significant that 11 July is now the Flemish national holiday. The Kortrijkse Tapestry tradition and the city's linen industry made it one of the most prosperous cities in medieval Flanders. Today Kortrijk has one of Belgium's most ambitious urban renewal projects, with the Station area and the Buda Island arts district reimagining post-indus…
Kortrijk was the Roman Cortoriacum and later a major Flemish cloth town. The Battle of the Golden Spurs on 11 July 1302 was one of the most significant events in medieval European history: a Flemish militia of weavers, farmers, and guild-members defeated the professional cavalry of Philip IV of France, shattering the myth of noble military invincibility and prefiguring the later success of Swiss infantry and English longbowmen. The 700 golden spurs captured from fallen French knights were displayed in the Church of Our Lady for 400 years (they were eventually taken back by France). The date i…