Last modified: 2007-12-02 by ivan sache
Keywords: herenthout | key (yellow) |
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![[Flag of Herenthout]](../images/b/be-vanhh.gif)
Municipal flag of Herenthout - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 18 January 2006
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The municipality of Herenthout (8,462 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 2,355 ha) is located in southern Kempen, 25 km south-east of Antwerp. The plan of the municipality, with a triangular market place, dates back to the Frankish times. Herenthout was made of two parishes, Sts. Peter and Paul and St. Gummarus for the hamlet of Wiekevorst, which seceded in the XVIth century.
Herenthout was known in 1186 as Herenholts, that is "a wood with hedges
of beeches".
The carnival of Herenthout was celebrated for the first time in 1892,
which made of it the oldest carnaval in Belgium, as confirmed in 1978
by Minister of the Dutch Affairs Rika De Backer. This explains why
Herenthout is nicknamed stoetersdorp, the processioners' village.
The National Museum of Wood Industry (Nationaal Houtambachtenmuseum)
"De Wimpe", introducing cabinetmaking, clog-making, cartwrighting,
forgeing and cooperage, is located in Herenthout.
Source: Municipal website
Ivan Sache, 18 January 2006
The municipal flag of Herenthout is vertically divided blue-yellow with
a yellow key in the blue stripe.
According to Gemeentewapens in België - Vlaanderen en Brussel, the flag and arms were adopted by the Municipal Council on 3 October 1985, confirmed by the Executive of
Flanders on 11 March 1986 and published in the Belgian official gazette
on 8 July 1986.
The colours and the keys are taken from the municipal arms.
According to Van evers en heiligen. Wapens en vlaggen van de
gemeenten in de provincie Antwerpen
[pbd98],
the first arms of Herenthout were granted on 6 October 1819 and
confirmed on 7 December 1844. They show St. Peter, the patron saint of
the town, holding two keys. The arms were designed after an old seal
used by the municipality; since no colour was specified, the Dutch
national colours were used, and they were not modified after the independence of
Belgium.
On the arms adopted in 1986, St. Peter holds only one key and has on
his left a golden shield with a red embattled horizontal stripe.
There are two versions (or - argent) of such a shield as the (van) Herlaer or Herlaar
family arms; Herlaar is a place name (fief) assumed as a family
name by Hendrik Kinschot of Van Schoten in the XIIIth Century.
Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat, Jan Mertens & Ivan Sache, 19 January 2006