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Orp-Jauche (Municipality, Province of Walloon Brabant, Belgium)

Last modified: 2015-07-28 by ivan sache
Keywords: orp-jauche | jauche |

[Flag of Orp-Jauche]

Municipal flag of Orp-Jauche - Image by Ivan Sache, 13 September 2007

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Presentation of Orp-Jauche and its villages

The municipality of Orp-Jauche (in Walloon, Oû-Djôce; 7,932 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 5,050 ha) is located in the extreme east of Brabant, on the border with the Provinces of Liège and Namur. The municipality of Orp-Jauche is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Orp-le-Grand, Jauche (in Dutch, Geten; including Enines and Folx-les-Caves since 1971), Jandrain-Jandrenouille, Marilles and Noduwez.

Orp-le-Grand, together with the hamlets of Maret and Orp-le-Petit, forms the northeastern part of Orp-Jauche. From the several known forms of the village name - Hadorp, Adorp, Auendorp, Adorp, Hardorp, Aorb, Aorp -, the etymologists have stated that Orp was "the old village", in Dutch ald dorp or oud dorp, locally pronounced aadorp, the first syllab having been eventually dropped.
Two villages emerged, each with its chapel, and were differentiated as Orp-le-Grand and Orp-le-Petit. Maret, like Marilles, might have been named after marshes. Remains of a Magdalenian camp (12000 BC), of Neolithic mines (4000 BC), of a Celtic village, of a Gallo-Roman villa and of a Frankish cemetary proved that the site of Orp has been continuously inhabited since the early ages.
It is believed, without evidence, that the first permanent settlement appeared in Orp-le-Petit, on a crossroads of Roman secondary ways (diverticuli). At the end of the VIIth century, the noble nun Adèle was sent from the abbey of Nivelles to set up a monastery in Orp; she built in Orp-le-Grand a church and a monastery where Countess Alpaïde, the mother of Charles Martel and the grand grandmother of Charlemagne, retired. In the XIIth century, Orp-le-Petit was still an independent domain while Orp-le-Grand and Maret were ran by religious communities within the Duchy of Brabant. In 1204, Duke of Brabant granted a chart to Orp-le-Grand and Maret, which was quickly transformed into a true franchise. In 1372, the magistrates of the franke ville d'Orp signed the chart of alliance of the towns of Brabant. Around 1300, the municipality of Orp-le-Grand included several villages. Like the neighbouring villages, Orp was often plundered in the XIVth-XVIIth century; additionally, it was under permanent threat by the Vinckaerts rascals, who were executed in 1754. In 1795, Orp-le-Grand, Orp-le-Petit and Maret were merged into the municipality of Orp-le-Grand.
The inhabitants of Orp-le-Grand warmly welcomed the patriots from Liège, led by Charles Rogier, on their way to Brussels in 1830. As a reward, the Liège Susbistence Committee offerred them a flag with the colours of the Province of Liège, that is still kept in the Council Room of Orp-Jauche.

Jauche, located between Enines and Jandrain-Jandrenouille, was built in the valley and on the hillsides of the Petite Gette, aka Jauce. Former written forms of the name of the village are Gyaz, Jace, Jeace and Jauce, and sometimes Jauche-le-Grand. In 1869, a big necropolis was found, used from the Age of Stone to the Frankish period. The powerful Barony of Jauche emerged around 1100, ruled successively by four feudal lineages. The early local lords of Jauche built the first feudal castle. The lords of Jauche set up a series of fortunate alliances; they kept several domains in Brabant, Hainaut and Namur, which allowed the junior sons and the daughters to rule prestigious religious establishments such as the St. Denis church in Liège and the abbey of Nivelles. Theearly lords of Jauche used the strategic location of their domain to increase their autonomy, which was, however, limited after the destruction of their castle by the Duke of Brabant in 1183. It is believed that the Duke increased the privileges of the domains located around Jodoigne to watch the lords of Jauche.
The local lords were succeeded in 1517 by the Cottereau, who built a Renaissance castle whose entrance gate can still be seen on the village's main square. In September 1567, the Counts of Egmont and Hornes were drawn into the manor owned in Brussels by Jean of Cottereau, where they were arrested. The next lords of Jauche were the Berlaymont de la Chapelle (1756) and the Van der Meer.
The building of the Tamines-Landen railway in 1865 favoured the industrialization of Jauche, with the set up of the Minsier ironworks, the Alliance dairy, later purchased by Gervais and eventually incorporated in 1967 to the Danone group, a gasworks operating from 1905 to 1931, and the Decoux construction workshop.

Enines, once known as Anines, Ayninne, Hennines and Ennines, is the westernmost and highest (150 m) village of Orp-Jauche. The place was already settled in the Neolithic, as proved by remains of a big necropolis and of a village found there. In the Middle Ages, the village depended on the municipality of Jandrain and was divided into two or three small domains depending on the abbey of Fosses. In the middle of the XIXth century, Enines was locally famous for its brickyards and tileries. They all closed and the last tiler died some 20 years ago, older than 100.

Folx-les-Caves forms the south-western part of Orp-Jauche. Once known as Foul (XIIIth century), Folz, Foulx and Fooz (probably from Latin fossa, "a quarry", or fauces, "a narrow cave"), the village was often added something to its name to differentiate it from other villages of the same name, so that is was called Foul-en-Brabant, Fooz-de-Jauche or Faulz-les-Caves. The village is probably of Frankish origin; it depended on the municipality of Geest-Gérompont and was ruled the lords of Foul. Later, the village was shared between the lord of Jauche, representing the St. Denis chapter in Liège (Folx de Jauche) and the Duke of Brabant (Folx du Duc) until Guillaume of Cottereau, Baron of Jauche, purchased the Duke's domain in 1648. The village was severely damaged by the French artillery during the battle of Ramillies, 1706.
The caves of Folx spread 13-18 m underground on an area of six hectares. Dug by men in the local stone known as tuffeau at an unknown period, they are formed by a series of small rooms hold by pillars; several galleries have caved down. They were used in the past by the villagers as a garage for the agricultural tools and as a shelter in wartime. Their most famous inhabitants was Pierre Colon, who lived in the middle of the XVIIIth century in a small house linked to the caves, then partially flooded, by a well. Colon was identified as the rascal who attacked the travelers in the neighbouring woods and his house was besieged for two months by the police, to no avail. The rumor said that Colon escaped the police by witchery, while he had indeed hidden in the caves and been resupplied by his wife. Eventually arrested and jailed in Jauche, Colon was visited by his wife who braught him a pie in which a file was hidden. Colon escaped and nagged the police by sending a message saying "if you want to keep pigeons (in local Walloon, colons, build a safer pigeonhouse." Colon was eventually arrested in 1769 and executed. He has been locally recalled as a kind of Robin Hood, robbing the rich to help the poor.
In 1862, Jean-Baptiste Gérondal, Mayor of Jauche, opened a brewery and vinegar distillery in the lower part of the caves, using the water of the underground brook that gushed forth there. In 1985, Pierre Celis, owner of the De Kluis brewery producing the Hoegaarden white beer, purchased that part of the caves to experience a new brewing process based on the champagne method, but eventually moved to the caves of Kanne, Limburg, in 1998.
In 1886, a French hawker asked the local inn-keeper Désiré Racourt about the origin of the name of the village. A former employee in a mushroom bed in Paris, the French convinced Racourt that temperature and hygrometry were suitable for growing mushrooms. The mushroom bed was exploited by the Racourt family until 1975, with its golden age between the two world wars, when six workers picked up every day 180 kg of mushrooms shipped to Liège, Brussels, Hasselt, Spa and Ostende.
Louis Bodart grew mushroom from 1907 to 1952 in the lower part of the caves formerly housing the brewery.

Jandrain-Jandrenouille, the biggest village of Orp-Jauche, forms the south-easterh part of the municipality. Jandrain and Jandrenouille are seprated by a small ridge topped with a water tower. Jandrain was mentioned for the first time in 855, as Gundrinium, later written Jandren, Jandrine, Jangdraine and Jaindrain. Jandrenouille, once Jandrinul, Jandernoul and Jandrignoule, is a diminutive form of Jandrain. The hamlet of Jauche-la-Marne was known in the past as Jauche-le-Male or Jauche-la-Mavayse, that is "the Bad", probably referring to its very isolated location. The two villages belonged to the Dukes of Brabant but the lords of Jauche kept some power there. In the XIIIth century, Jandrain was a wealthy village and the capital of a municipality including Jandrenouille, Marilles, Nodrenge and Enines. It was destroyed in 1334 during the war between Brabant and Liège, plundered by the lord of Houffalize in 1402 and nearly disappeared at the end of the XVth century. The wars of the XVI-XVIIth centuries did not improve the situation: in 1706, there were no cultivated lands in either of the two villages. Once owned mostly by the local big abbeys, the two villages were purchased from the Duke of Brabant by Guillaume of Cottereau, lord of Jauche, around 1650. On 14 July 1812, a Decree officialized their merging into a single municipality.

Marilles, together with the hamlet of Nodrenge, forms the north-western part of Orp-Jauche. The name of the village, once written Maruiles, Mariles, Marioles and Marieles, probably alludes to marshes (in French, marais). Nodrenge, once known as Nordrenge, Nuadrenge, Nordreinghe and Norderinghen, is of Germanic origin. Several artefacts from the Neolithic, Gallo-Roman and Frankish periods have been found in the village. In the early XIIth century, Marilles belonged to the Duchy of Brabant while Nodrenge was ran by the lords of Jauche on behalf of the St. Lambert chapter in Liège. In 1216, Gerard of Jauche founded the Ramée abbey in Jauchelette and transferred Marilles and Nodrenge to it.
In 1204, Duke Henri I of Brabant granted a chart to the villages of Marilles and Nodrenge. Following war damages and epidemics, Marilles was abandoned by its inhabitants in 1582; resettled, the village was plundered and the church burned in 1635 by the French-Dutch army coming back from the unsuccessful siege of Leuven. Marilles and Nodrenge were merged into a single municipality around 1650.

Noduwez, together with the hamlet of Libertange, forms the northernmost part of Orp-Jauche. The village and the hamlet are separated by a hill hiding them to each other. Noduwez, which has several written forms and is still known in Walloon as Nodwé, might have been derived from noa, "a pasture", and wez, "a ford". Libertange means Libert's estate. Like the other villages, Noduwez and Libertange were settled very early. Depending on the municipality of Orp-le-Grand in the XIIth century, they were granted a chart by the Duke of Brabant in the beginning of the XIIIth century. Libertange was eventually incorporated to Noduwez in 1794; from 1824 to 1893, Noduwez-Libertange and Linsmeau (incorporated into Hélécine in 1976) formed a single municipality with its administrative seat in Libertange
In the XIXth century, home-working developed in Noduwez, which is the origin of the nickname of Vis Tècheus (Old Knitters) given to the villagers. There were still 150 weavers in 1867 but none in 1910.


Ivan Sache, 12 September 2007

Municipal flag of Orp-Jauche

The municipal flag of Orp-Jauche is horizontally divided red-yellow-red (3:2:3).
According to Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et germanophones, the flag was adopted by the Municipal Council on 29 January 1996 and confirmed by the Executive of the French Community on 28 March 1997.
The flag is based on the arms of the family of Jauche, which were granted to the former municipality of Jauche under the Dutch rule.

The arms of the Jauche family were also granted to the municipality of Kruishoutem, which still uses a banner of these arms as the municipal flag (but has adopted more complicated arms since the municipal reform).

The municipality of Hornaing, located near Denain, in the north of France, uses the arms of the family Jauche-Mastaing as its municipal arms. These arms are the arms of the Jauche family with a yellow vivre in the upper red stripe.
The very same arms are used by the municipality of Brugelette (also on the municipal flag).

Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 12 September 2007