![[Flag of Wanze]](../images/b/be-wlgwz.gif)
Last modified: 2006-01-14 by ivan sache
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Municipal flag of Wanze - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 16 May 2005
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The municipality of Wanze (12,232 inhabitants; 4,395 ha) is located in
the valley of the river Meuse, 30 km of Liège and Namur. It is made of the former municipalities of Antheit, Bas-Oha, Huccorgne, Moha, Vinalmont and Wanze. The territory of the municipality is watered by
river Mehaigne, which crosses it from north to south; the northern part
of the municipality is part of Parc naturel des vallées de la Mehaigne
et de la Burdinale.
Wanze and Antheit are peri-urban areas of the city of Huy and includes most of the industrial activity in the municipality (sugar house and
lasagna factory in Wanze), except the lime quarry exploited by Carmeuse in Moha. The other villages of the municipality are mostly rural.
Wanze (2,807 inh.; 407 ha), watered by the last meanders of the
Mehaigne, is often considered as the affluent suburbs of Huy. The
first Belgian sugar house was built in Wanze in 1812, and is still
active. The city hall of Wanze is a former women's priory set up around
1154 after a settlement made to the abbey of Floreffe by Countess
Ermesind, widow of Count Albert de Moha. The wealth of the priory
increased in the XIIIth century; at the end of the XVIIIth century,
there were only two to three nuns and a prior in the priory, which was
closed during the French Revolution and sold on 22 January 1798.
The hamlet of Longpré (254 inh., 110 ha), formerly part of the
municipality of Couthuin, was incorporated into Wanze in 1977. The
Temple's Farm belonged to the Order of Malta until the French
Revolution. Several legends are related to the farm; the most famous of
them says that a souterrain links the farm to the fortress of Moha. Of
course, the souterrain has not been found yet.
Antheit (4,128 inh.; 714 ha) is located on a wooded hillside north of Huy. It is the birth city of the painter Paul Delvaux (1897-1994), considered as the best representative of oniric surrealism. Until 1930, Delvaux made realist paintings inspired by Impressionism; he later destroyed several hundreds of these early works. In 1936, he exhibited at Brussels with De Chirico and met Magritte. He changed his style and painted weird scenes bathed in a disturbing light (Nocturne, 1939; Les Phases de la lune, 1941). After the Second World War, most Delvaux' paintings showed still, sleep-walking women, mermaids and skeletons placed in ruins modeled after the classical antiquity (Messagère du soir, 1980). Delvaux was also fascinated by railway stations where nothing happens; he spent his youth in a place surrounded by three railway lines. In 1980, the painter opened a foundation and museum in St. Idesbald, near his house in Veurne.
Bas-Oha (1,648 inh.; 701 ha) is located 3.5 km of Huy. The hamlets of Lamalle and Oha are located on the plateau of Hesbaye, whereas the hamlets of Bas-Oha and Java are located in the valley of Meuse.
Huccorgne (657 inh., 843 ha) is located 10 km of Huy in the valley of Mehaigne. The village is nicknamed pays des veaux (calves' country). The Cycle Museum is housed by the Famelette farm in Huccorgne. It shows 180 bicycles made from 1830 to now. The farms was in the XVIth century an outpost of the fortress of Moha. Its barn, with a skeleteon dated 1564, is one of the biggest barns in Wallonia.
Moha (1,595 inh.; 551 ha) is located 7 km of Huy. It was the seat of a
County set up in the IXth-Xth centuries. The County of Moha had its
justice court, located in Wanze, and kept it after its incorporation to
the Principality of Liège.
The fortress of Moha was built between the XIth and the XIV th century
on a spur dominating the confluency of the Mehaigne and the Fosserôle.
Among its owners are the related dynasties of Dabo, Eguisheim and Moha.
Their most famous members are St. Odile (c. 660-c. 720), the patron
saint of
Vinalmont (1,349 inh.; 1, 069 ha) is located 7 km of Huy on the edge of the plateau of Hesbaye. The name of the municipality, known since 1137, refers to grapevine (Montes vinalis) grown in Vinalmont until winter 1694, when Louis XIV' soldiers burnt down the vines, and replaced today by small grains and sugar beet. The famous limestone of Vialmont, which becomes more and more white with age, has been extracted since the Middle Ages. The quarry explains why most of the houses of the village, especially in the hamlet of Wanzoul, are made of rubble stone instead of brick.
Sources:
Ivan Sache, 16 May 2005
The municipal flag of Wanze, as confirmed by the municipal administration, is quartered white-grey-red-white with a grey shield with a red canton in the first quarter of the flag.
![[Proposal of flag of Wanze]](../images/b/be-wlgw1.gif)
Proposed municipal flag of Wanze - not used - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 16 May 2005
According to Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et germanophones, the Heraldry and Vexillology Council of the French Community proposed a white flag with a red square canton, that is a banner of the municipal arms.
The municipal arms of Wanze are:
D'argent au franc-quartier de gueules
That is:
Argent a quarter gules.
They were adopted by the Municipal Council on 11 September 1979 and
confirmed by Royal Decree on 12 February 1980.
It seems that the municipality decided to have a more complicated pattern than proposed by the Council and to use silver as the litteral translation of argent, which is extremely uncommon on flags.
Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 16 May 2005