![[Flag of Mettet]](../images/b/be-wname.gif)
Last modified: 2013-12-12 by ivan sache
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Flag of Mettet - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 25 March 2007
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The municipality of Mettet (12,037 inhabitants on 1 July 2007; 11,678 ha) is located 25 km south-south-west of Namur, in the region of Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse. The municipality of Mettet is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Mettet, Biesme, Biesmerée, Ermeton-sur-Biert, Furnaux, Graux, Oret, Saint-Gérard (known until the 17th century as Brogne) and Stave.
The once powerful abbey of Brogne, founded by St. Gérard, is located in
Mettet.
Saint Gérard was probably born around 890 in Stave, where his parents
owned the domain of Brogne, enclaved within the forest of Marlagne.
During hunting, Gérard entered the old St. Peter chapel, where the
saint appeared to him and asked him to build a bigger chapel to keep
St. Eugen's relics. Gérard studied with the Benedictine abbey of
Saint-Denis near Paris, where he was ordained priest and given the
relics in 919. He increased the parish church of Brogne and built in
923 the Benedictine Sts. Peter and Eugen monastery, being its first
abbot.
In 930, commissioned by Count of Flanders Armand and Duke of
Lotharingia Giselberg, Gérard set up a monastic reform. In every
monastery, a regular abbot was named and the Benedictine rule was
applied to get rid of the power exerted by the feudal lords who
spoliated the goods and the benefits of the abbeys. Several abbeys of
Belgium (Saint-Ghislain, Sts. Peter and Bavo in Ghent, Salles in
Chimay) and France (St. Bertinus in St. Omer, Saint-Amand, St. Remy in
Reims, Saint-Wandrille, Mont-Saint-Michel and St. Ouen in Rouen) were
reformed by Gérard, who came back to Brogne in 953, where he died on 3
October 959. St. Gérard was canonized by Pope Innocent II in 1131. The
devotion to the saint increased after his death; his relics were
invoked against fever, jaundice and skin diseases. The miracles were
credited to the miraculous water of the St. Peter Well, a well dug in
the 10th century in the abbey church following Sts. Peter and Eugen
"recommendations".
Gérard was succeeded in Brogne by 36 abbots. The fourth abbot,
Gonthier, increased the abbey church, which was consecrated by the
Bishop of Liège in 1038. Abbot Robert the Builder (1192-1221) rebuilt most of the abbey and set up the Gothic crypt that is the most
impressive part of the abbey. After the death of the last abbot, the
abbey was directly incorporated to the Bishopric of Namur in 1566; the
abbey was governed by a prior and lost most of its benefits. Its
decline was increased by the lack of care of most bishops, who were in
permanent conflict with the few remaining monks.
The monks were expelled after the French Revolution; in 1797, the
financer Jean-Baptiste Paulée purchased most of the buildings. During
the Dutch rule, the abbey fell into ruins; the abbey church and two
cloisters were suppressed to build a new road. In 1974, the abbey was
purchased by the municipality of Mettet; in 1983, the association
"Abbaye Saint-Gérard de Brogne" was founded to restore some of the
buildings and to set up a culture project. Twenty-six thematic
exhibitions were organized from 1992 to April 2007. In 2007, the
municipality of Mettet took over the management of the abbey .
Source: Association "Abbaye Saint-Gérard de Brogne" website
The motorbike circuit of Mettet, of international fame, is named after Jules Tacheny (1907-1984), one of the founders of the "Royal Union Motor de l'Entre Sambre et Meuse" and most famous Belgian motobiker ever. Born in Mettet (and often nicknamed Monsieur Mettet), Tacheny was garage hand in his birth village, but his main interest was in motorbike races. In 1925, he started to win local races, so that the FN (Fabrique Nationale) ammunition factory of Herstal hired him as one of its four official pilots in 1930. On 26 October 1931, he broke 41 world records with his team mate Milhoux on the circuit of Linas-Monthléry, near Paris. Tacheny set up the circuit of Mettet, transferred to the Belgian state in 1951, where famous races are organized, such as "Grand Prix de Mettet", "1,000 kms de Mettet", and the very popular "Superbiker".
Source: Mettet circuit official website
Ivan Sache, 25 March 2007
The flag of Mettet is quartered by a white cross green and green with a white border.
According to Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et germanophones [w2v03a], the design was proposed by the
Heraldry and Vexillology Council of the French Community, as
Vert chargé d'une croix blanche et bordé de blanc au deuxième et troisième cantons, la largeur de la croix et de la bordure étant égale
au 1/7e du guindant.
The width of the cross and of the border shall be 1/7th of the flag
height.
The design of the flag is inspired by the motorbike circuit (the border
and the cross form indeed an "8").
Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 25 March 2007
