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Last modified: 2019-09-07 by ivan sache
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Municipal flag of Leopoldsburg - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 14 April 2006
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The municipality of Leopoldsburg (in French, Bourg-Léopold; 14,472 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 2,248 ha) is located in the region of Kempen, 20 km north-west of Hasselt. The municipality was established in 1976 as the merger of the former municipalities of Leopoldsburg and Heppen. A first merging plan, drafted in 1970, proposed to merge Leopoldsburg and Heppen with their mother municipality, Beverlo, but political reasons stopped the project. This would have been, however, more logical, since the barracks and headquarters of the camp of Beverlo have always been located in Leopoldsburg and not in Beverlo. Most of the former territory of Beverlo is now included in the municipality of Beringen.
The creation of the military camp in 1835 on the Great Moor of Beverlo
attracted several people, who came from all over Belgium and even from
France, and settled near the camp. There were 378 colonists (75 families)
in 1844, including inn-keepers, blacksmiths, tailors, cobblers, bakers,
butchers, carpenters, coppersmiths, roofers, wool spinners, glaziers,
barbers... They lived near the camp in clay huts roofed with straw. In
1836, the colonists started growing vegetables, fertilized with abundant
horse dung, which they sold to the camp. General Hurel (Baron François
Alexandre Hurel, 1774-1847, a French soldier in the service of Belgium)
tolerated the settlement of civilians on military grounds. His
successors wanted to preserve discipline in the camp and negociated in
1842 with the municipal administration of Beverlo the foundation of a
new village, located on the western border of the camp but out of it. A
plot of 26 ha was allocated but it took up to 1848 to expel all
civil settlements out of the camp. On the plot granted by Beverlo were
built an inn (1838), a post office (1840) and the foundations of the
today's Carmel chapel (1840-1843). A pastor and a school teacher were
appointed in 1844. The new settlement was urbanized like a
checkerboard, which was a common practice at that time, mostly for
public health reasons. The ancient burgerterrein became known as
"Bourg" and later "Le Bourg" (but other sources say that "Bourg" comes
from the architect Victorien Bourg). The new town had rectilinear, wide
streets, as well as large squares, such as the later renamed
Astridplein (130 m x 90 m).
King Leopold I was closely involved with the evolution of the camp of
Beverlo. He stayed often there in his "Royal palace" and was highly
estimated by the local population, which was very Royalist. Therefore,
the name of the town was changed in 1848 to Bourg-Léopold or Le Bourg Léopold. In 1849, the Municipal Council of Beverlo translated the new
name in Dutch as Leopoldsboerg.
Due to the increase in the population, the formation of a municipality
independent from Beverlo was asked. So did the inhabitants of Heppen,
another component of Beverlo. By Royal Decree of 25 September 1839,
Heppen was made an independent parish incorporating Heppen and
Bourg-Léopold, excluding Bourg (center), which depended on the camp's
parish. On 4 June 1850, Bourg-Léopold (Leopoldsburg) and Heppen were
made two independent municipalities. In 1850, Bourg-Léopold had a mill,
producing 400 t of floor per year, which was part of an agricultural
complex including also a genever distillery, producing 32,760 1.5 L
bottles per years, and a brewery, producing 125 hL per year. There were
also a candle factory, a tobacco plant, a brickery and a port on the
canal.
In the 1870s, several troops were moved from Beverlo to the region of
Walcourt and the population of Leopoldsburg decreased from 1,871 (in 1870) to 1,581 (1883). New troops were reincoporated to Beverlo in 1889
and the population of the village increased to 3,512 the same year. The
name of Leopoldsburg was officially fixed on 14 June 1932.
Heppen is much older than Leopoldsburg. It was already known as Hippen
in 630. Eginhard, Charlemagne's chronicler, mentioned in 830 "the
village of Heppen, located in Taxandria". The parish of Beverlo was
formed with the domains of Beverlo, Heppen and Korspel. The region was
later incorporated into the County of Loon. In 1365, the municipalities of Beverlo, Oostham and Kwaadmechelen formed the Country of Ham, ran by
a lord and a municipal court (schepenbank) located in Oostham. Each
of the three components of the Country kept its Mayor and some local
rights. In 1366, the County of Loon was incorporated into the
Principality of Liège.
On 1 October 1795, the French regime made of Beverlo an independent
municipality. Heppen became a separate parish on 25 September 1839 but
was put on the official list of the Belgian municipalities only in
1850, as was Bourg-Léopold.
The camp of Beverlo was originally planned to be a teaching camp and an
observation post of the border with the Netherlands. The Great Moor of
Beverlo was desert, located close to the border and rich in drinking
water, and was therefore selected to build the new camp. In May 1835,
Captain Renard and his 1,100 soldiers started the building site,
rebuilding 420 huts taken from the camp of Diest, building 1,250 tents and straw huts and drilling 48 wells. At the end of July 1835, the camp
was ready to house 20,000 infantry, cavalry and artillery soldiers. The
camp was severely damaged by harsh weather in November 1837 and a new
infantry camp made of nine "squares" (90 m x 90 m with a well in the
center) was built. After the peace with the Netherlands signed in 1839,
Ministry of War Pierre-Emmanuel Chazal decreed in 1845 that the camp of
Beverlo should be made permanent and rebuilt with bricks. The military
hospital achieved around 1848 was then considered as the most modern in
Europe. The modernization of the camp was completed in 1913 with the
introduction of electricity in the camp.
In 1914, the Germans invaded Belgium and most of the army withdrew
beyond river Yser. Running after the Belgians, the Germans did not
occupy the north of Limburg but with a few cavalry squadrons. General
De Schepper, commander of the 11th line regiment in Hasselt, was
appointed by the Germans Military Governor of Limburg; with a group of
300 volunteers, he carried on his "small war" against the German uhlans
and hussars, mostly by guerilla actions. He set up his headquarters in
Hotel Legentil and Leopoldsburg but had to give up the fight in October
1914; his troops were then demilitarized in the Netherlands. The
Germans settled the camp of Beverlo, where they made the first
experiments with chlorinated gas, which was later widely used on the
Yser front.
Between the two World Wars, the camp of Beverlo, considered as the
biggest and most modern in Europe, housed 40,000 soldiers and 4,000
horses. It received every year garrisons from all over Belgium, which
paraded between Leopoldsburg and the camp. Beverlo was then one of the
most renowned places in Belgium, since every Belgian family had at
least one of his member who had been garrisoned for five weeks there,
experienced the icy northern wind, the sand storms, and the comfortable
pubs of Leopoldsburg.
The camp was bombed by the Germans on 10 May 1940. The Germans occupied
the camp, which was fortunately no more bombed. From October 1942 to
November 1943, 204 men, including 176 resistance fighters, were brought
from the jails of all over Belgium and shot in the municipal wood. The
allied troops bombed the camp on 12 May 1944; they mistakingly hit the
Zuidstraat in Beverlo, killing 77 civilians. Another bombing on 28 May
destroyed the infantry camp and killed hundreds of German soldiers. The
cavalry camp was used by the Germans for politic prisoners, several of
them being sent to deportation in Germany. The camp of Beverlo, as well
as Leopoldsburg and Heppen, was liberated by the Piron Brigade on 11
September 1944. It was then used by General Brian Horrocks as his
headquarters; from there, he gave on 15 September 1944 the order to
start the Market Garden operation (see the movie "A Bridge Too Far").
Some parts of the infantry camp were rebuilt from 1947 to 1953. The 1st
Armoured Infantry Brigade was garrisoned in the camp in 1970. In 1976,
the Liberation Battalion, follower of the Piron Brigade, was moved to
Beverlo. Since the suppression of draft and the return of most Belgian
troops from Germany, the camp of Beverlo is the biggest garrison in
Belgium.
Ivan Sache & Jan Martens, 14 April 2006
The flag of Leopoldsburg is red with two mirrored yellow "L"
letters surmounted by the Royal crown of Belgium.
According to Gemeentewapens in België - Vlaanderen en Brussel [w2v02], the flag, adopted on 25 April 1989 by the Municipal Council, is prescribed by a Decree issued on 20 July 1989 by the Executive of Flanders and published on 8 December 1990 in the Belgian official gazette.
The shade of the flag is madder red, which is the colour of the Order
of Leopold, set up in 1832. The two mirrored "L"'s form Leopold's cypher.
The municipal arms of Leopoldsburg also show Leopold's cypher and crown, placed in a green canton. The main field of the arms shows the Belgian tricolor flag with two swords crossed in saltire.
Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 14 April 2006
