![[Flag of Berlare]](../images/b/be-vovbl.gif)
Last modified: 2007-10-20 by ivan sache
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Municipal flag of Berlare - Image by Filip van Laenen , 14 October 2001
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The municipality of Berlare (14,270 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 3,793 ha) is located between Ghent and Dendermonde. The municipality of Berlare is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Berlare (7,876 inh.; 1;773 ha), Overmere (4,504 inh.; 1,372 ha) and Uitbergen (1,980 inh.; 648 ha). Lake Donk (Donkmeer), located in Overmere and Uitbergen, is the biggest lake in Flanders (86 ha). It was a former place of peat extraction from the XVIIth to the XXth century.
In 2007, Karel De Gucht (VLD, Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten) was
elected Mayor of Berlare. De Gucht, born in Overmere in 1954, was
President of the VLD, 1999-2004, and was appointed Minister of Foreign
Affairs in the second Verhofstadt government, 22 July 2004.
Berlare is the birth village of the cyclist Fred De Bruyne (Alfred
Debruyne, 1930-1994). His career was quite short (1954-1961) but very
successful. De Bruyne won three times Liège-Bastogne-Liège (1956, 1958,
1959), Milan-San Remo (1956), and the Tour of Flanders and
Paris-Roubaix the same year (1957). He also won six stages of the Tour
de France, three in 1954 and three in 1956.
Overmere is the village where the Peasants' War (Boerenkrijg) started on 12 October 1798.
Ivan Sache, 21 May 2007
The municipal flag of Berlare is horizontally divided white-red-white.
According to Gemeentewapens in België - Vlaanderen en Brussel, the flag was adopted by the Municipal Council on 11 May 1981, confirmed by Royal Decree on 2 February 1982
and published in the Belgian official gazette on 21 April 1982 and, again, on 4 January 1995.
The three stripes represent the three villages forming the
municipality. White and red are the colours the most represented in the
municipal arms and the colours of the flag of the Boerenkrijg, who was
white with a red cross.
The municipal arms of Berlare are given on the municipal website as:
Doorsneden 1. in zilver een Sint Martinus met bedelaar, alles van
natuurlijke kleur 2. gedeeld a. in sabel zes schelpen van zilver 3, 2
en 1 geplaatst b. in lazuur een leeuw van goud, geklauwd en getongd van
keel, met over alles heen een schuinbalk van keel, beladen met drie
breedarmige kruisjes van zilver, in de richting van de schuinbalk
geplaatst (Per fess; first, argent a St. Martin with the beggar proper; second, per
pale; a, sable six scallops argent placed 3, 2 and 1; b, azur a lion or
armed and langued gules overall a bend gules three crosslets argent).
These arms are a merging of the arms of the former three municipalities:
- Berlare (Royal Decree, 4 November 1854): "Argent a St. Martin
proper". St. Martin was already the patron and protector of Berlare in
the XVth century.
- Overmere (1819, confirmed by Royal Decree, 30 November 1838); "Azure
a lion or armed and langued gules overall a bend gules three crosslets
argent". These arms belonged to Jan of Massemen, lord of Overmere in
the XIVth century and son of Margareta of Nevele, who had inherited
the domain from her father Willem of Nevele, lord of Utberghe, in
1312.
- Uitbergen (Royal Decree, 16 September 1898): "Sable six scallops
argent placed 3, 2 and 1." Willem of Uytberghe, magistrate at the
Court of Ghent, bore in 1310 "Argent three scallops sable. Boudewijn
Borluut married Catharina of Uytberghe and bore arms with a quarter
"Sable five scallops argent."
The Gelre Armorial shows "Azure a lion or" for Gerard of Rasseghem,
lord of Massemen (Die He. v. Massemyn, #950, folio 81r), whereas the
Lalaing Armorial shows "Azure a lion or armed and lampassed gules" for
Massemen (Rassegem) (Massemine, #156, folio 80r).
Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 21 May 2007
Nievdonckse Watersport Vereniging (NWV, New Donk Watersport Association, niev being the dialectal form of new) was founded in 1994 by members of a local sailing club eager to explore the new Donk articifial lake, a former peat production area now used for recreation; the first trials were made in 1983.
The burgee of NWV is blue with a broad lying Y form outlined in yellow, with a disk in the "middle" of the Y containing blue stylized wavelets.
Source: NWV website
Ivan Sache, 23 February 2007
