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Anthisnes (Municipality, Province of Liège, Belgium)

Municipal flag of Anthisnes - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 24 March 2005

Presentation of Anthisnes
Municipal flag of Anthisnes

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Presentation of Anthisnes

The municipality of Anthisnes (4,000 inhabitants; 3,707 ha) was formed in 1977 by the merging of the former municipalities of Anthisnes, Hestreux, Hody, Lagrange, Tavier and Villers-aux-Tours, encompassing the 21 villages and hamlets of Anthisnes, Baugnée, Berleur, Coibehay, Hestreux, Hody, Houchenée, Lagrange, La Ramée, La Rock, Les Floxhes, Limont, Moulin, Rapion, Targnon, Tavier, Tolumont, Viegeay, Vien, Villers-aux-Tours and Xhos.
Arable land and forests represent 61% and 21% of the municipality area, respectively.

The name of Anthisnes might come from Anteus, the owner of a Roman villa (estate). At that time, the Roman way between Reims and Cologne crossed the territory of Anthisnes.
In 946, Anthisnes became an ecclesiastical domain. From 1125, the fief known as Antina belonged exclusively to the abbey of Waulsort. The powerful prince-bishops of Liège could not perceive any tax on this fief until 1686. In 1664, Guillaume Natalis, abbey of the St. Lawrence's church in Liège, bought the fief of Anthisnes. In 1768, the prince-bishop of Liège exchanged Anthisnes for other domains with the Prince-Abbott of Stavelot.

When the county of Logne and the principality of Stavelot-Malmédy were incorporated into France in 1795, the villages of Anthisnes and Vien were merged into a municipality of the department of Ourthe, which later constituted the Belgian province of Liège.

Stone extraction was the main industry in Anthisnes. Extraction of limestone locally called petit granite started in the area of Anthisnes in the Middle Ages in order to built fortresses and later churches and farms. Industrial extraction of stone started in Anthisnes around 1875. There were in 1896 four quarries in Anthisnes, hiring 200 workers and 17 horses. The annual production was 2,700 cubic meters of freestone, that is 17 % of the production of the province of Liège. An other 655 cubic meters of rubber stones were also produced, as well as 77,000 cobblestones. The quarries of limestone were located in Anthisnes whereas sandstone was extracted in Tavier and Villiers-aux-Tours for cobblestone production.
This industry reached its peak in 1909, with 819 workers hired by fifteen quarries. Stone extraction started to decline after the First World War, during which cheaper substitute materials were popularized. After the Second World War, the quarries of Anthisnes hired foreign workers, Italians and then Portuguese.
Today, there are only three quarries still in exploitation in La Hazotte, Sprimont and Résimont, hiring 20 workers.

During the golden age of stone extraction, the stone from Anthisnes was used to build several monuments such as the Central Post Office in Liège, the columns of the bridge of Fragnée (1905), the monument of the fifteenth anniversary (cinquantenaire) in Brussels and the statue of King Albert I on the starting point of the Albert Canal in Liège.

Source: Municipal website

Ivan Sache, 8 February 2003

Municipal flag of Anthisnes

The flag of Anthisnes is horizontally divided green-white-green, with two yellow disks placed horizontally in the upper green stripe, three black ermine spots placed horizontally in the white stripe, and one yellow disk placed in the lower green stripe, all these elements being placed close to the hoist.

The flag was adopted on 4 April 1996.

Source: Flags of the Low Countries

Coat of arms of Anthisnes - Image by Ivan Sache, 8 February 2003

The arms of Anthisnes are shown on the municipal website, placed on a shield with a semi-circular shape.

Jarig Bakker & Ivan Sache, 8 February 2003