Last modified: 2008-04-26 by ivan sache
Keywords: waregem | fleur-de-lys (red) | moor | deer | keys: 3 (yellow) |
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![[Flag of Waregem]](../images/b/be-vwvwg.gif)
Municipal flag of Waregem - Image by Jarig Bakker, 11 November 2001
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The municipality of Waregem (35,831 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 4,434 ha) is located 20 km north-east of Kortrijk. The municipality of Waregem is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Waregem (21,854 inh.; 2,664 ha), Beveren (5,311 inh.; 636 ha), Desselgem (5,165 inh.; 724 ha) and Sint-Eloois-Vijve (3,498 inh.; 410 ha). Waregem was granted the honorific title of town (stad) on 23 June 1999.
Waregem, mentioned for the first time in 826, was "Waro's lineage's
estate", but the banks of the Leie were already settled in the
Gallo-Roman times, while the rest of today's Waregem was then covered
with woods. Around 950, the St. Peter abbey of Ghent was granted a big territory, including most of Beveren-Leie, Desselgem, and parts of Deerlijk and Waregem. Until the XIIIth century, the St. Bavo abbey of Ghent owned Sint-Eloois-Vijve and most of Waregem. The center of Waregem was surrounded by lands owned by the lords of Dendermonde, who eventually took the control of the town in the XIIth century, except its center, which was transferred to the Notre-Dame Chapter of Tournai.
Until the XVIIIth century, Waregem was a rural municipality, the center
of the village and the church forming an "enclave" surrounded with
woods, that covered 26% of the municipal territory. In 1635, an
official market was required to get rid of the black market of butter,
grain and other foodstuff, but was refused under the pressure of the
neighbouring market towns of Kortijk, Wakken and Oudenaarde. A new application, tabled in 1784 with the support of Nokere, Zulte, Wortegem, Sint-Baafs-Vijve, Sint-Eloois-Vijva and Anzegem, was more successful; on 29 November 1784, Emperor Josef II allowed a weekly market on Sunday for linen, flax, wool, butter, eggs and flax seeds, which boosted textile industry. In 1784, there were 900 families - some 4,500 inhabitants - and some 800 looms. Until the first half of the XXth century, clothing industry dominated the economic life in Waregem,
the "Golden Banks of the Leie" (Gouden Leieboorden) providing full
employment. After the crisis of the 1940s, the clothing industry was
mechanized and has survived until now.
Waregem is a proud horse's town. The first horse race was organized in the village, whose cobbles had been dug out, by Felix de Ruyck and Jules Storm on 30 August 1847. In 1855, de Ruyck was allowed to organize a steeple-chase on the meadows surrounding the village. Supported by the indutrialist Marc Lejeune, from the north of France, the "Grand Steeplechase of Flanders" of Waregem became a main event in equitation. British lords and kings, as well as Emperor Napoléon III, sent their best horses to the race. The Waregem Koerse (Waregem Race) is still a world-famous event taking place in August, with the famous steeple-chase and its difficult jump over the Gaverbeek brook (7.5 m in width, the widest in the world). The Gaverbeek track, built in 1858 and revamped several times since then, is the place of trotting races from May to September, and the center of a multi-purpose sports complex (17 ha).
Waregem is the arrival town of the cyclist race Dwars door Vlaanderen
(Across Flanders), ran for the first time in 1945 as Dwars door
België (Across Belgium). Ran a week and an half before the famous Tour
of Flanders, Dwars door Vlaanderen is mostly a Belgian affair ,with
famous winners like Rik Van Steenbergen (1945), Raymond Impanis (1949,
1951), Briek Schotte "The Last Flandrian" (1953, 1955), Walter
Godefroot (1966,1968), Eric Vanderaerden (1986, 1991), Johan Museeuw
(1993, 1999) and Tom Boonen (2007). The race is less difficult than the
Tour of Flanders but climbs some of its famous mounts, for instance the
Oud Kwaremont and the Paterberg.
The Road World Championships, organized in Waregem in 1957, were won by Rik Van Steenbergen, defeating Louison Bobet and André Darrigade.
Beveren (known as Beveren-Leie to distinguish it for other villages named Beveren), mentioned for the first time in 964 in a deed by the Frankish king Lothaire, is named after the Celtic word bebrona, "a river with bevers". In 1937, a Gallo-Roman treasure with 800 bronze coins dated c. 260 AD was found in the village. Beveren belonged to the St. Peter abbey in Ghent and developed as a linen village.
Desselgem was mentioned for the first time in 964, when Count of Flanders Arnulf the Great transferred "Desselgem and its neighborhood" to the St. Peter abbey in Ghent. The name of the village comes from Frankish Thasseldhinghehem, Thraswald's lineage's estate. Like Beveren, Desselgem lived in the past from linen.
Sint-Eloois-Vijve was at the end of the Xth century a strategic place for Count of Flanders Baudouin IV during the revolt of the town of Kortrijk against his rule. According to a document dated 1289, Sint-Eloois-Vijve, then known as Vijve-Dendermonds, shared a common lord with Ingelmunster, both villages belonging to the lords of Dendermonde until the French Revolution. Sint-Eloois-Vijve was located at the crossroads of the Cassel-Tongeren and Bavay-Oudenburg Roman ways and, in the Middle Ages, halfway between Lille (France) and Ghent. This was the place where the horses were changed and the travellers could rest in one of tne numerous inns built along the road. After the building of the Imperial road Ghent-Kortrjik in 1716-1718, Sint-Eloois-Vijve was the place of an important coaching inn, still recalled by the De Posterij pub. There was also a bridge over the Leie in the village and a lock was built on the river in 1863, which even increased the wealth of Sint-Eloois-Vijve. In the XIXth, there was also linen industry in the village.
Source: Municipal website
Ivan Sache, 20 December 2007
The municipal arms are described by Servais (old arms of Waregem and
Dessegem) and in the municipal website (modern arms of Waregem).
The modern arms of Waregem are "Per fess, 1a Argent a fleur-de-lis
gules, 1b Gules a Moor standing clad vert belted or and crowned of the
same, 2 Gules three keys or, overall an escutcheon azure a deer's head
proper." The upper part of the arms and the escutcheon comes from the arms of
the Barons of Plotho, lords of Waregem, Sint-Eloois-Vijve since 1584
and bearing "Quarterly, 1 and 4 Argent a fleur-de-lis or, 2 and 3 A
Moor proper, overall an escutcheon azure a deer's head proper". These
arms were used by the Bailiff representing the Baron of Plotho in
Waregem and Sint-Eloois-Vijve. The arms of Plotho were granted to the
municipality of Waregem by Royal Decree on 7 November 1892, corrected
by a Royal Decree on 19 August 1893, prescribing the addition of a blue
label in chief to distinguish the arms of the municipality from those
of the Plotho family.
The arms and flag of Ingelmunster shows also a deer's head, which is probably not coincidental since the Barons of Plotho were also lord of Ingelmunster.
The lower part of the modern arms of Waregem comes from the arms of Desselgem, "Gules three keys or. The shield supprted by St. Martin and the poor on a
terrace vert". Desselgem belonged to the St. Peter abbey in Ghent,
which owned several parts of Waregem and Beveren, too. "Gules three
keys or" were the arms of the abbey, symbolizing the keys of the
Kingdom of Heaven. These arms, supported by St. Martin, were granted to
the municipality of Desselgem by Royal Decree on 10 April 1954.
![[Flag proposal for Waregem]](../images/b/be-vwvw2.gif)
Rejected flag proposal for Waregem - Image by Ivan Sache, 20 December 2007
A former version of the municipal website, no longer online, claimed that the original flag proposed by the Municipal Council of Waregem did not include the coat of arms, which was added by the Flemish Heraldic Council to make the flag more distinguishable.Pascal Vagnat, Jarig Bakker & Ivan Sache, 20 December 2007