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Crisnée (Municipality, Province of Liège, Belgium)

Municipal flag of Crisnée - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 30 May 2005

Presentation of Crisnée
Municipal flag of Crisnée

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Presentation of Crisnée

The municipality of Crisnée (2,737 inhabitants; 1,685 ha) is located in the north of the province of Liège, 15 km from Liège and 10 km from Tongeren and Waremme. It was constituted on 1 January 1965 by the merging of the former municipalities of Crisnée, Fize-le-Marsal, Kemexhe, Odeur and Thys. The municipality was not modified by the administrative reform of 1976.

The local historian Eugène Dethier claims that Crisnée was the site of the ancient city of Atuatica; his claim is based on the finding of the remains of a Roman estate (villa) near Crisnée in 1935. Before the Vth century, the region was evangelized by St. Matern and his followers, who organized the parishes with a chapel and a presbytery. At that time, Kemexhe was the mother church of Thys, whereas Crisnée and Otrange depended on Fize; Odeur depended on Othée. Every year on Whit Tuesday, the parishioners organized a solemn procession and brought the church tax to the Canon of Tongeren. Today, a single priest serves the five parished of Crisnée.

The country of Liège was trashed from 1290 to 1325 by a vendetta which opposed the local noble families. The writer Jacques de Hemricourt called it the War of Awans and Waroux, after the two main parties. In Kemexhe, the main families involved in the conflict were Beaurieu (who bore "Barruly of ten pieces argent and azure a lion gules overall") and Pénilh (who bore "Gules a lion or"). During the XVIIth century, Crisnée was occupied and trashed by troops fighting there: Duke of Marlborough stayed in Thys; the Dutch General Overkerke stayed in the presbytery of Crisnée; de Weert burnt down Odeur and Kemexhe was trashed by the Brandeburg troops.

Source: Municipal website

Ivan Sache, 30 May 2005

Municipal flag of Crisnée

The municipal flag of Crisnée is white with five red lozenges and a yellow canton with a red saltire.
According to Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et germanophones, the was adopted by the Municipal Council on 23 October 2001, following the proposal made by the Heraldry and Vexillology Council of the French Community, and confirmed by the Executive of the French Community on 15 July 2003, with the following description:

Blanc chargé de cinq losanges accolés rouges occupant tout le tablier avec un canton jaune et la croix diagonale rouge couvrant la moitié supérieure des deux premiers losanges à la hampe.

The flag is a banner of the municipal arms, adopted in the same time as the flag:

D'argent à cinq fusées de gueules, accolées en fasce, au franc-quartier d'or au sautoir de gueules.

These arms belonged in the Middle Ages to the lord of Crisnée.

Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 30 May 2005