![[Flag of Durbuy]](../images/b/be-wlxdu.gif)
Last modified: 2007-11-03 by ivan sache
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Municipal flag of Durbuy - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 30 January 2006
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The municipality of Durbuy (10,633 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 15,700 ha) is located in the north of the Province of Luxembourg, on the borders of the regions of Condroz, Famenne and Ardenne. The municipality of Durbuy is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Durbuy, Barvaux, Bende, Bomal, Borlon, Grandhan, Heyd, Izier, Septon, Tohogne, Villers-Sainte-Gertrude and Wéris.
The town of Durbuy was built at the foot of a rocky spur dominating the
river Ourthe. In the Middle Ages, the town had a very strategical
position; until the XIVth century, it was protected by big walls, the
loop of the Ourthe and a castle built on the spur in the XIth century.
Documents from 1078 and 1183 list Dolbui castello and Castellum de
Durbui, respectively. The town belonged successively to the Duchy of
Lotharingia, the County of Namur and the County of Luxembourg. The
capital of a domain called Terre de Durbuy, Durbuy was then part of
a defense line protecting the County of Luxembourg.
In 1331 (or more probably between 1275 and 1314, according to the local
historian Nicolas Contor), Durbuy was granted the status of town
(ville) by Count of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia John the Blind (1296-1346, killed during the battle of Crécy). Durbuy
was also a center of trade and justice. However, it remained very
small, which explains its nickname of "smallest town in the world". The
administrative seat of the town was the Grain Market, already mentioned
in 1380, rebuilt in the XVIth century and modified in the XVIIIth
century.
In the XVIIth century, the Counts of Ursel rebuilt a castle on the site
of the former fortress. The gates and the city wall were suppressed at
the same time.
The village of Wéris is one of the 22 members of the association of the
nicest villages in Wallonia. Its main building is the St. Walburge
church, built in Mosan style in the XI-XIIth century. The house
adjacent to the church is supposed to have been a donjon part of the
defense line of Durbuy. In 1684, the ironmaster Jean-Mathieu Marchant
built in Wéris a fortified farm.
However, Wéris is mostly known for its megalithic field, the biggest in
Belgium. It is made of a series of parallel alignments. Remains of
bones found on the site allowed datation with C
The region of Durbuy in rich in natural stones with odd shapes, which
have inspired legends. The Haina Stone is said to conceal a hole going
down to the center of the earth; from time to time, the Devil lifts it
up to do his evil business, and then rests on the stone called the
Devil's Bed. Another tradition says that the Haina Stone is whitened
every year on the autumn equinox, which purifies it and repels the
Devil. The Haina Stone dominates the megalithic field and might indeed
have been used by the Prehistoric men as a marker to design the field.
A miller once lacking water for his mill called the Devil for help; as
often, the Devil promised to build a dyke within one night providing
the miller would give him his soul. The miller said he would pay only
in the morning after having assessed the work done during the night. At
dawn, the Devil called the miller, who sent his dog to him. Very angry,
the Devil destroyed the dyke and rested on the aformentioned Devil's
Bed. Remains of the dyke can still be seen near the hamlet of
Roche-à-Frêne.
In the hamlet of Pas-Bayard, the deep and wide groove visible on a
stone is, of course, the hoofprint of horse Bayard carrying the Four
Aymon Sons to Durbuy, located two leagues farther.
Sources:
Ivan Sache, 30 January 2006
The municipal flag of Durbuy is vertically divided blue-white with the
municipal coat of arms in the middle.
According to Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et germanophones, this is the traditional flag of the
town, described as follows:
Deux laizes transversales bleue et blanche avec au centre l'écu de la
ville.
The coat of arms of Durbuy is very similar to the coat of arms of Luxembourg, but the lion is plain red and has no crown. The shield is crowned, however.
Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 30 January 2006
