Last modified: 2008-03-29 by ivan sache
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![[Flag of Overijse]](../images/b/be-vbrov.gif)
Municipal flag of Overijse - Image by Andy Weir & Ivan Sache, 18 September 2007
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The municipality of Overijse (24,164 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 4,443 ha) is located between Brussels and Wavre.
Overijse is named after the
river IJse that waters the municipality. The oldest known form
of the name is Isca, the Latinized form of a Celtic root which means water, mentioned in a chart dated 832.
Overijse was granted its first chart in 1001/1005 by Duke
Otto of Lorraine. Accordingly, the
merchants of Overijse did not pay tax on the grain market of
Brussels. In 1234, Duke Henri granted the burghers of Overijse a freedom chart.
They had therefore the same status as the
burghers of Brussels, Leuven and
Wavre, which were then the three richest town in Brabant.
The rule of the sleazy lords of Witthem, which started in 1345,
was a period of decline for Overijse. In 1488, the village was burned
down by the troops of Maximilian of Austria. Between 300 and 400
inhabitants were killed in the church. The decline of the vineyards
started around 1500.
The XVIth century was a period of rebirth.
A colossal building site allowed the reconstruction of the center of
the village. The St. Hubert Hospital was built and the famous
architects Keldermans, father and son, drafted the plans of the market hall.
On 10 October 1677, Overijse became the seat of a Principality granted to Eugene-Maximilian of Horne and would have to face another difficult period. Under the French rule and until the Dutch rule, the heirs of the Horne family (Salma) lost the principality. After having retrieved their domain, they were forced to sell it in 1817. In 1832, Overijse was awarded a Honour flag, the horizontally divided Belgian flag granted to the municipalities who had sent volunteers in the independence war in 1830.
Overijse contributed to the Golden Age of humanism, thanks to its
most famous citizen, the humanist Justius Lipsius (1547-1606).
Lipsius (Joost Lips) was borne in Overijse on 18 October 1547. He
lived during the so-called "golden century", which was, however, also
the era of the Inquisition and of the stakes. A contemporary
of Kings Charles V and Philip II, the Duke of Alva and Don Juan of
Austria, Lipsius lived in a dramatically changing world, which was
affected by the Reformation, the council of Trento and the
Counter-Reformation.
Lipsius' career can be divided into three
periods. During his Brabantian period, Lipsius studied in Brussels,
Ath, Cologne and Leuven, did a study trip
in Roma and taught for a short time in the Protestant University of
Iena. In Rome, Lipsius was the secretary of Cardinal de Granvelle
(1517-1586, Vice-Roy of Naples, 1571-1575 and Archbishop of
Besançon, 1584), and met the
French humanist Marc-Antoine Muret (1526-1585, mostly known for his
Latin poems). Muret deeply influenced Lipsius but the two humanists
fell out because of Lipsius' edition of Tacitus' Annals in 1574.
In 1578, Lipsius left Leuven because of the repression exerted by the
Spaniards, abjured Catholicism and moved to the Calvinist university
of Leiden. The exile to Leiden was the
second period of Lipsius' career, during which he developed his own
philosophy, often labelled as Christian neo-Stoicism [De
Constantia, 1583). He was appointed several times Rector of the
university.
In 1591, Lipsius came back to his homeland and Catholicism and
supported the Counter-Reformation. Lipsius' decision caused a huge
international sensation. During that third period of his career,
Lipsius worked on Seneca's Stoicism. He reached the top of his career
in Leuven, where he was the eminence grise of Archdukes Albert and Isobel until his death in 1606. In his last writings, Lipsius,
combining erudition and eloquence, developed the so-called "terse
style" and the theory of imitatio adulta. This theory was
coined by J.B. Giraldi in 1543 but Lipsius systematized it in his
Epistolica Institutio (1591). The imitatio adulta
corresponds to the model that an experienced humanist must find in
Seneca or Tacitus, instead of reproducing Cicero's school exercises.
It requires variety and density, and was the basis of the European
mannerism (illustrated for instance by Tintoreto, Arcimboldo, El
Greco, Jan Metsys etc.) and a very important means of propagating the
Counter-Reformation. The imitatio adulta also includes a
notion of "progress in literature", as applied by the French Jesuit
predicators, who fed the antique models with contemporary poets such
as Ronsard.
Lipsius was nicknamed Lumen seculi sui (His century's light)
and was called by the French humanist Montaigne le plus scavant
homme qui nous reste (Today's most learned man).
Sources:
Ivan Sache, 30 March 2004
The flag of Overijse is yellow with a bunch of six blue grapes placed 3, 2 and 1.
According to Gemeentewapens in België - Vlaanderen en Brussel, the flag was adopted by the Municipal Council on 7 July 1982, confirmed by the Executive of Flanders on 3 December 1984 and published in the Belgian official gazette on 8 July 1986, as Geel met blauwe ongebladerte tros van zes druiven 3-2-1 geplaatst, lambdavormig gesteeld en getakt.
The six grapes stand for the six parts of the municipality, Overijse downtown
and five hamlets. The bunch stem and axis recall the facade and the
rooftop of a hothouse.
The flag of Overijse is one of the few Belgian municipal flags that has nothing to do with the matching municipal arms.
Growing of eating grape has always been a major activity in Overijse.
In 1903, a report by the municipal council stated that most of the
production (from hothouses) was shipped to Brussels and also to other
big towns. A few big grape growers shipped their production to
England, Germany, and even to Russia and America. In the 1920s, grape
growing made of Overijse, together with
Hoeilaart, the richest municipality in
Belgium.
Three cultivars of white grapes are grown in Belgium
(Baidor, Canon Hall and Muscat of Alexandria) as well as four cultivars of black (called "blue" in Dutch) grapes (Leopold III,
considered as the best eating grapes in the world, Colman, Ribier and Royal).
The Grapes' Festival (Druivenfeesten) takes place every
year in Overijse at the end of August, the period of harvest. The
main event of the festival is the election of the Queen of Grapes
(Druivenkoningin).
Ivan Sache, 30 March 2004