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Flag of Le Rœulx - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 4 February 2007
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The municipality of Le Rœulx (7,969 inhabitants on 1 January 2006; 4,280 ha; website) is located 45 km south of Brussels, between Mons and La Louvière. The municipality of Le Rœulx was established in 1976 as the merger of the former municipalities of Le Rœulx, Thieu, Ville-sur-Haine (including Gottignies since 1964) and Mignault.
Le Rœulx, known in the past as Rues (1166-1188), Ruz (1188-1191), Rueth, Ruels, Roelx and Reux, was probably named after the Latin word rhodus (or Germanic röde), "a cleared charcoal forest". The village developed around the St. Feuillien abbey, built around 1125. Born as Faelan in Western Ireland around 600, Feuillien left Ireland as a missionary with his two brothers. After seven years spent in England and France, Feuillien met St. Gertrude, Abbess of Nivelles in 645. The abbess granted him land in Fosses, where he founded a monastery in 651. In 655, on their way from Nivelles to France, Feuillien and his fellows were killed and beheaded by rascals. The murderers hid the saint's body in a pigpen, where it was found only two months later, and brought back with great pump to Fosses via Nivelles. The place where Feuillien's body had been found became a place of pilgrimage, marked by a cross later replaced by the Sénophe chapel. The lower maxillary of the saint is kept in a shrine shown in the St. Nicholas church of Le Rœulx.
Around 1125, monks from the Norbertine order set up the St. Feuillien
abbey around the chapel. The abbey, with an estate spreading over 15
ha, was the origin of the town of Le Rœulx. The abbey only housed
20-40 monks but also a doctor, a surgeon, a chemist, cooks, a brewer, a
gardener... The abbey flourished but its power was more and more
challenged by the lords of Le Rœulx. The last monks were expelled in
1797, following the French Revolution. The abbey was purchased by Papin,
Mayor of Le Rœulx, and in the early 19th century by the Croÿ family.
Most buildings were suppressed in order to set up the northern part of
the park of the castle. The only remains of the abbey are the gate
(1770), the gatekeeper's house, a part of the wall of the vegetable
garden and cellars. Paintings and stalls, preserved by Norbert Durieu,
last Abbot and later Canon in Tournai, were transferred into the cathedral of Tournai. A monstrance made in 1543, maybe by Estiévin de
Bussy, is kept in the Museum of the St. Vincent Collegiate Chapter of
Soignies; it is decorated with the three statues of God, Apostle St. Peter bearing a key and St. Paul, and surmounted by the Dove of the Holy
Spirit and Jesus on the Cross; the monstrance is brought back to Le Rœulx once a year, on the Adoration's Sunday.
Saint-Feuillin had given his name to the local beer, a top-fermenting
ale brewed by four generations of the Friart family since 1873.
The domain of Le Rœulx was one of the twelve Peerages of Hainaut. A
local lineage emerged in the late 11th century, with lord Arnould, the
second son of Count of Hainaut Baudouin de Jerusalem. Most lords of Le Rœulx were named Eustache (also written Wistaffe in old documents).
Eustache I the Old (1142-1192) fought together with Count of Hainaut
Baudouin V against the Duke of Limburg and the Duke of Brabant; he died
on the Crusade. His son Eustache II the Young (1162-1188) strongly
fortified the castle of Le Rœulx but he died before his father, which
was succeeded in 1190 by his grand-son Eustache III Canivet
(1190-1210); Eustache III signed several charters, including the Hainaut
charter in 1200, and founded the hospital of Le Rœulx in 1202. His son
Eustache IV (d. 1221) succeeded him, was caught by King of France
Philippe-Auguste at the battle of Bouvines (1214) and released from the
Louvre tower in Paris in 1216. His successors were Eustache V
(1221-1283), Gilles I Rigaut (1284-1308) and Eustache VI (1308-1337).
Eustache VI died without heir and the domain of Le Rœulx was
incorporated into the County of Hainaut. In 1433, Le Rœulx was granted
to Antoine de Croÿ, Baron de Renty, lord of Aarschot and Chièvres and
Chamberlain of Duke of Burgundy Philip the Good. The castle went down
in the annals of Hainaut since it was visited or inhabited by famous
rulers, especially the Dukes of Burgundy Philip the Good and Charles the Bold and the Kings of Spain Charles V and Filip II. The dukes and
the kings built firm alliances with the Croÿ family through
godfathership. In 1713-1760 Duke Ferdinand-Joseph de Croÿ revamped the
facade and the parks of the castle and added two wings. In 1814, the
Prince of Orange and the Duke of Wellington met in the castle for a few
days short before the battle of Waterloo.
Thieu is the southernmost village of the municipality of Le Rœulx. The village is divided into two parts by the recently built Canal du Centre. The ship funicular lift of Strépy-Thieu was inaugurated on 30 August 2002, after 20 years of work; it is located on the new canal, on the limit of Thieu and Strépy (in the municipality of La Louvière). The Canal du Centre connects the basins of the Scheldt, the Meuse and the Rhine and the port of Dunkirk. The lift allows ships up to 1,350 tons to "climb" a 73-m slope; the height of the lift is 110 m for a length of 135 m. The tanks for the ships are 112 x 12 m, for a volume of 8,000 tons of water. They are powered by cables and pulleys at a speed of 20 cm per second. The ship transfer operation lasts at least 40 minutes. The funicular lift replaces four old hydraulic lifts, built on the ancient canal in 1882-1917. These lifts have been registered by UNESCO on the World Heritage List.
Ville-sur-Haine is located in the south-west of the municipality of Le Rœulx. In the small valley known at least since 1347 as Val de Creuse,
a shepherd once found near a source a black statue of the Virgin made
of oak. He brought it to the village church but the next morning the
statue was back to the source. After three similar events (this story
is the mythic origin in several sanctuaries in Belgium and elsewhere),
the inhabitants decided to build a plinth for the statue. In 1820, a
nasty shepherd overturned the statue and was immediatly it by fever,
from which he never recovered. The Mayor, a rich farmer and the
villagers decided to found the Notre-Dame-de-Creuse
chapel to keep the statue. The chapel was rebuilt in 1912 and again in
1991, including the two miraculous sources used for long against fever
by the villagers. The miraculous statue was stolen in 1980 and found
back th next year at a fence in Brussels; since then, it has been kept in the church of Ville-sur-Haine.
On 11 November 1918, a few minutes before the Armistice and the end of
the war, a Canadian regiment entered Ville-sur-Haine. The soldier
George Price was killed by a German snijper. He is considered as the
last Commonwealth soldier killed during the First World War. A memorial
was built in 1968. In 1990, the local history circle got in touch with
George Barkhouse, George Price's nephew, who came in 1991 to
Ville-sur-Haine for the inauguration of the George Price footbridge
that crosses the Canal du Centre near the place where the soldier was
shot. During the ceremony, George Barkhouse was given a small crucheted
flower George Price was wearing when shot and that he had given to the
lady trying to help him.
Gottignies is the smallest village of the municipality of Le Rœulx. The tiny St. Joseph chapel, built in 1702, is the oldest chapel-on-plinth in the
municipality of Le Rœulx.
Mignault is the northernmost village of the municipality of Le Rœulx. It is an agricultural village with big farms, such as the Cense de Belle Maison, built under the Spanish rule and revamped at the end of the 16th century.
Ivan Sache, 4 February 2007
The flag of Le Rœulx is yellow with the municipal arms in
the center.
According to Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et
germanophones [w2v03], this flag was proposed by the Heraldry and Vexillology Council of the French Community.
The municipal arms, granted by Royal Decree on 30 June 1838, are "Vert a lion proper holding in dexter a five-ray wheel all or".
Servais [svm55] shows similar arms for Le Rœulx before 1976, but with a red-tongued lion. The images on Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et germanophones as well as the coat
of arms shown on the municipal website indeed show the lion with a red tongue, therefore in contradiction with the description. The municipal
arms, based on a seal from the 15th century, are partially canting since a wheel is in French a roue, which is not so different from "Rœulx". The arms of the early lords of Le Rœulx, from the Ath-Chièvres branch of the house of Hainaut, were "Or three lions gules 2 and 1".
Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 25 August 2007
