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Uccle / Ukkel (Municipality, Region of Brussels-Capital, Belgium)

Municipal flag of Uccle/Ukkel - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 5 May 2005

Presentation of Uccle/Ukkel
Municipal flag of Uccle/Ukkel

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Presentation of Uccle/Ukkel

The municipality of Uccle (French) / Ukkel (Dutch) is one of the 19 municipalities constituting the region of Brussels-Capital. It had 75,059 inhabitants on 31 December 2003, including 1,677 employees of the European Union of foreign nationality and 1,323 members of foreign diplomatic staff.
Uccle is one of the largest municipalities in Brussels-Capital and the fourth largest by its number of inhabitants; it is mostly a residential, if not posh, municipality, with several green areas and more than 500 ha of the forest of Soignes, which attracted several artists. The French poet Charles Baudelaire stayed in Uccle in 1864.

The municipality was incorporated in 1795 under the French rule by the merging of the former feudal domains of Uccle, Carloo and Stalle. Several other noble families had their manor in Uccle. The place called Boetendal (lit., the Penitents' Valley) recalls a Franciscan convent founded by Isabel of Portugal in 1467. Beforehand, the chef-banc or échevinage (municipal court) of Uccle exercized its jurisdiction over the whole ammanie (medieval municipality) of Brussels. The court was reorganized by a chart granted by Duke of Burgundy Philip the Handsome in 1454. The historian L. Vanderkindere believes that Uccle was once the seat of the judicial power in Brussels. A legend says that the St. Peter's church in Uccle was consecrated around 803 by Pope Leon III in the presence of Gerbaldus, Bishop of Liège, and Emperor Charlemagne.

The city of Brussels dramatically increased in the XIXth century because of the industrial revolution. Uccle, located in the south of Brussels, developed along two main roads, Chaussée de Waterloo (used by Wellington's troops on the eve of the battle of Waterloo in 1815), heading to the (former) coal-mining basin of Charleroi, and Chaussée d'Alsemberg (built in 1712), heading to Walloon Brabant. Population of Uccle / Ukkel was 3,091 in 1815, 19,967 in 1903 and is more than 75,000 today. The city was completely revamped by the Société du Nouvel Uccle in 1882, including the building of a city hall.

Source: Municipal website

A vineyard was recently recreated in Geleytsbeek by Mark De Brouwer. Grapevine was grown in Uccle / Ukkel in the XVth-XVIIth century. The new vineyard has 270 stocks planted on a 4.5 are plot. Grapes were harvested for the first time in 1990.

Around 1904, Michel Van Gelder bred the bearded and booted bantam (dwarf hen) called Barbu d'Uccle (in English, "Belgian d'Uccle Bantam" or "Booted Bantam"), probably by crossing "Barbu of Antwerp" and "Dutch Sabelpoots". "Barbu d'Uccle" is often refered to as "Mille Fleur" or "Millies", in spite of the fact that Mille Fleur is only one of their color variants and it also appears in other breeds. Fowl fans seem to love "Barbu d'Uccle" since there are breed clubs in the USA (Belgian d'Uccle & Booted Bantam Club), the United Kingdom (The British Belgian Bantam Club), Australia (The Belgian Bantam Club of Australia) and the Netherlands (Breeders Club for Rare True Belgium Bantams).

Ivan Sache, 5 May 2005

Municipal flag of Uccle/Ukkel

The municipal flag of Uccle/Ukkel is vertically divided light blue-white. It can be seen on the facade of the city hall beside the Belgian national flag (picture available on the municipal website). The colours are undoubtly derived from the municipal coat of arms.

Under the Dutch rule, Uccle/Ukkel was granted a coat of arms:

Azure St. Peter with a miter and a crozier or holding in dexter a key of the same.

According to the municipal website, a Royal Decree from 3 July 1925 allowed the municipality of Uccle/Ukkel to reuse the seal of the former échevinage. The seals shows St. Peter sitting full-frontal on a seat à l'antique, holding in dexter an open book and in sinister a key surmonting an escutcheon of Brabant (sable a lion or langued gules). As soon as 1432, the échevins used a seal portraying St. Peter, the patron saint of the parish, holding in his left hand the key, symbolizing the power transmitted to him by Jesus Christ, surmonting the coat of arms of Brabant and in the right hand an open book. The motto is SIGILLU SCABINORUM DE UCCLE (Seal of the échevins of Uccle/Ukkel).
Servais confirms that the coat of arms of Uccle/Ukkel was also granted on 3 July 1925.

Arnaud Leroy & Ivan Sache, 5 May 2005