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Putte (Municipality, Province of Antwerp, Belgium)

Municipal flag of Putte - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 7 July 2005

Presentation of Putte and its villages
Municipal flag of Putte

See also:

Presentation of Putte and its villages

The municipality of Putte (15,813 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 3,496 ha) is located 15 km west of Mechelen, in the southern border of the region of Kempen. The municipality of Putte is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Putte and Beerzel and of a part of the former municipality of Peulis.

Putte bore several different names during its history: Badfriede or Befferen (1008), then Wavre St. Nicolay or Sint-Niklaas-Waver (see neighbouring Sint-Katelijne-Waver), De Sancto Nicolao de Putea or Putte Sancti Nycholai, and eventually, simply, Putte.

Beerzel already existed as a village in the IXth century, later named Barsal(1151), then Bersela, Beersele, Beersel-op-den-Bosch, for differenciation from Beersel in Brabant, and Beersel. The written form Beerzel was fixed in 1932.

Peulis (in the past Poeluus and Poelis) might have been named after the Poluus family (XIVth century), or after Pee Lens, an inhabitant of the village in the XIXth century. Another possible etymology is the word paalt or peulte, "a marshy or low land".

Source: Municipal website

Ivan Sache, 7 July 2005

Municipal flag of Putte

The municipal flag of Putte is vertically divided blue-yellow with the municipal coat of arms in the middle.
According to Gemeentewapens in België - Vlaanderen en Brussel, the flag was adopted by the Municipal Council on 6 June 1991, confirmed by the Executive of Flanders on 11 June 1991 and published in the Belgian official gazette on 25 September 1991.

According to the municipal website, the municipal arms of Putte, "Azure three millrinds or 2 and 1, a bordure serrated or" were granted by Royal Decree on 29 May 1858 (Servais gives year 1838) and confirmed on 11 June 1991. They were the personal arms of the first lord and Baron of Putte, Antonius Ferdinand van Broeckhoven, whose family ruled Putte from 1660 to 1793.
Earlier arms were supported by two lions each holding a banner, one with the arms from the shield and the other one with the ancient arms of Putte in the time of the Berthout family, "Or three pales gules a bend azure transversally bearing three scallops or".

Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 7 July 2005

In Dutch the charges of the coat of arms are called molenijzer, in French fer de moulin. According to C. Pama's Prisma van heraldiek en genealogie (1990) the shape as above is typical Dutch. Outside the Low Countries it has different shapes and names (English: "millrind", "ink-moline", French: anille, German: Mühleisen) and is called in Dutch antiek molenijzer.

Mark Sensen, 26 September 1997