![[Flag of Grez-Doiceau]](../images/b/be-wbrgd.gif)
Last modified: 2005-11-12 by ivan sache
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Municipal flag of Grez-Doiceau - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 7 June 2005
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The municipality of Grez-Doiceau (in Dutch, Graven; 11,079 inhabitants; 5,541 ha) is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Archennes, Biez, Bossut-Gottechain, Grez-Doiceau and Nethen. It is located in the eastern part of Walloon Brabant.
In 2002, the road RN25 was extended; during the preliminary boring near Gottechain, a Merovingian cemetary was found, with more than 300 tombs. Four of these tombs are particularly big; one of them yieled a beautiful set of funerary artefacts, including a woman's headdress decorated with 28 appliqués made of gilting gold.
A bourgeois from Wavre settled around 1650 in Grez-Doiceau and
exploited chalk. Chalk mining was the main activity in the village
until the middle of the XIXth century, where the former galleries were
used to grow mushrooms on hors-manure. Mushroom cultivation ceased
after the Second World War.
The St.Georges' church of Grez-Doiceau was completely rebuilt in
1760-1772, except the sandstone Roman western tower erected in the
XIIth century.
Grez-Doiceau is the origin of the Belgian community in Wisconsin, USA, founded in 1853 by ten Walloon families. The event is commemorated by a plaque unveiled in 1988 on the town hall of Grez-Doiceau. The migration movement then spread to the region of Namur; the Belgian colony, settled today in the north-east of Wisconsin, has more than 8,000 members and is the most important Walloon rural community in the USA. The history of the migration is related in the book De Grez-Doiceau au Wisconsin by Jean Ducat (De Boeck-Wesmael, Brussels, 1986).
Source: Municipal website
Ivan Sache, 7 June 2005
The municipal flag of Grez-Doiceau is vertically divided in six red and white vertical stripes. According to Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et germanophones, the flag was adopted by the Municipal Council on 16 March 1999 and confirmed by the Executive of the French Community on 15 July 2003.
An illegitimate branch of the ancient family of Grez took the Dutch
name of Van Grave; these lords were vassals of the Duke of Brabant and
had for arms "Per fess gules and argent".
In 1482, the seal of Grez showed St. Georges with a lance and a flag
charged with a fess (for Grave?) and the word Georgius. In 1902, this
seal was officially confered to the municipality of Grez-Doiceau; in
1978, it was transfered to the new municipality of Grez-Doiceau.
The coat of arms granted to the municipality in 1999 is:
De gueules au chevalier armé de toutes pièces, monté et galopant à senestre, d'argent.
That is:
Gules a rider argent armed, mounting and galoping sinister.
On the arms, the rider's pennant is not in colour but showed by black
lines on a white background.
The official flag of the municipality is therefore the fessed (per pale
would be more accurate) flag of the former lords of Grez / Grave.
Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 7 June 2005