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Vorselaar (Municipality, Province of Antwerp, Belgium)

Municipal flag of Vorselaar - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 16 July 2005

Presentation of Vorselaar
Municipal flag of Vorselaar

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Presentation of Vorselaar

The municipality of Vorselaar (7,323 inhabitants on 1 January 2004; 27. 4 sq. km) is located in the region of Kampen, in the heart of the province of Antwerp.

At the turn of the XIII-XIVth centuries, Vorselaar belonged to the lords of Rotselaar, vassals of the Duke of Brabant. The Duke built a waterburcht (fortress on water) near the way between Antwerp and Turnhout, probably a secondary branch of the trade way to Cologne. Controlling the trade way to Cologne was one of the main political aims of the Dukes of Brabant and the main cause of their troubles with their neigbours in Gelderland, Cologne and Liège.

In the XVIth century, the lordship was transfered to Cornelis van Bergen and his successors, the Arenberg, who often lived elsewhere and granted the administration of the village to an intendant (drossaard). In 1663, Karel Eugeen van Arenberg sold Vorselaar to Jan-Baptist Proost, Councillor at the Court of Brabant. The castle was rebuilt in and the domain was revamped at that time. This caused money shortage to the Proost family, who sold the castle and the domain to Phillipe Lodewijk de Prel, a former Mayor of Antwerp. His daughter Annemarie married Karel-Philips van de Werve, member of a rich family from Antwerp, who was confered in 1768 the title of Count by Empress Maria Theresia. The van de Werve family transformed the castle into a nice castle on water, surrounded by a big domain. The power of the family was symbolized by the pillory built on the market square of Vorselaar in 1759, and still there. In 1898 Maria-Louise van de Werve married Baron Eduard de Borrekens.

Until 1900, Vorselaar was mostly a rural village. The diamant industry started at this period in Vorselaar and boomed in 1925, but has declined in the last decades. Over the last 20 years, Vorselaar grew as an affluent village.

Vorselaar is known for its Way of the Cross, a series of 13 smaller and one bigger chapels built in a hamlet of the village by the farmer Petrus Verhaert. On the altar of the bigger chapel can be seen the icon of the Blessed Virgin of the Seven Sorrows.

Source: Municipal website

Ivan Sache, 16 July 2005

Municipal flag of Vorselaar

The municipal flag of Vorselaar is quartered, first and fourth a yellow field with a black boar and second and third a black field with three white chevrons.
According to Gemeentewapens in België - Vlaanderen en Brussel, the flag was adopted by the Municipal Council on 3 June 1985, confirmed by the Executive on 11 March 1986 and published in the Belgian official gazette on 8 July 1986. After the adoption of the current federal status of Belgium, the whole adoption process was started again, with adoption by the Municipal Council on 12 June 1995, confirmation by the executive of Flanders on 12 March 1996 and publication in the Belgian official gazette on 9 May 1996. The flag is a banner of the municipal arms (excluding the supporters).

According to the book on the flag and arms in the province of Antwerp [pdb98], the arms of Vorselaar were originally granted on 14 March 1841. They are identical to the arms of the van de Werve family, already used by the Municipal Council in the late XVIIIth century.

Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 16 July 2005