![[Flag of Ham]](../images/b/be-vlihm.gif)
Last modified: 2007-12-02 by ivan sache
Keywords: ham | lion (black) |
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Municipal flag of Ham - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 18 June 2006
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The municipality of Ham (9,824 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 3,269 ha) is located in the north-west corner of Limburg, between Leopoldsburg and Tessenderlo, on the border with the province of Antwerp. The municipality of Ham is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Ham, Kwaadmechelen and Oostham. There is an other municipality with the same name, Ham-sur-Heure-Nalinnes in the province of Hainaut and a municipality of Hamme in East Flanders.
Ivan Sache, 18 June 2006
The municipal flag of Ham is divided in nine stripes in turn white and
red and charged with a black lion bearing a yellow crown.
According to Gemeentewapens in België - Vlaanderen en Brussel, the flag and arms were adopted by the Municipal Council on 30 March 1989, confirmed by the Executive of
Flanders on 6 June 1989 and published in the Belgian official gazette
on 8 November 1989.
The flag is a banner of the municipal arms.
The arms of Ham are based on the arms of the Van Hoensbroeck family,
ruler of Kwaadmechelen and Oostham in the XV-XVIth centuries.
The Van Hoensbroeck family is related to Hoensbroek, today a part of
the municipality of Heerlen, in Dutch Limburg. According to Eversen and
Meulleneers (De Limburgsche gemeentewapens, 1990), Herman Hoen was
appointed in 1388 lord by the Duke of Brabant and built a castle; the
domain was named Hoensbroek (Hoen tzo Broeck) and was kept by the
family until the French revolution. The arms of the family shows a
black lion with a forked tail, crowned and armed or on a white field
with four horizontal bars. The oldest known municipal seal of
Hoensbroek, dated 1449, uses the family arms only. The seal used in the
XVIIIth century shows the arms supported by the patron saint of the
parish, St. John the Evangelist, a design later adopted as the
municipal arms. On the municipal arms, the lion's tongue is yellow
whereas it is black on the family arms (as it is on the flag and arms
of Ham).
The flag of Hoensbroek is made of nine horizontal stripes in turn white and red with the
municipal coat of arms, showing St. John presenting the municipal arms
on a blue field.
Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 18 June 2006
