Roeselare

Roeselare, known in French as Roulers, is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality consists of the city proper together with Beveren, Oekene and Rumbeke. Its name comes from two Germanic words meaning reed and open space, describing a marsh in a forest clearing. The first written mention, as Roslar, dates from a document of 821 or 822 that gave the domain to Elnon Abbey, and the rights to fortify the place and hold a public market date from 957. The city received its charter of freedoms in the mid 13th century and cloth making was long the main source of income. Maximilian of Austria destroyed the city at the end of the 15th century, and the Eighty Years War later ended the cloth trade for a time. After the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678 Roeselare became a border city, which encouraged smuggling. Its minor seminary hosted the Flemish poets Guido Gezelle and Albrecht Rodenbach, and the city is home to the Rodenbach brewery. The municipality had an estimated 67,697 inhabitants on 1 January 2026.