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Incourt (Municipality, Province of Walloon Brabant, Belgium)

Municipal flag of Incourt - Images by Arnaud Leroy, 16 January 2006
Left, flag in use
Right, flag proposal, not used

Presentation of Incourt and its villages
Municipal flag of Incourt

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Presentation of Incourt and its villages

The municipality of Incourt (4,619 inhabitants in 1994; 3,881 ha) is located in Walloon Brabant. The municipality of Incourt is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Incourt, Glimes, Opprebais, Piétrebais and Roux-Miroir.

Incourt was already known in 949. It is mostly a rural village; in the XIXth century, it had three breweries and a watermill. Incourt is mostly known as St. Ragenufle's willage. Ragenufle was born in the beginning of the VIIth century in the hamlet of Brombais. Her parents were close relatives of Pepin de Landen, the father of St. Gertrude of Nivelles. They wanted to marry their daughter to Ebroïn but she escaped with her servant on the day of the wedding; the two women hid in a wood where they led a saintly life. After Ragenufle's death on 14 July 650, her parents showed their repentance by building a sanctuary of her tomb, where several miracles occurred. Created in 1112, a procession honours the saint on Whit Monday; the procession was suppressed in 1968 but resumed in 1992. A legend says that Ragenufle once hit the ground with her stick and that a source gushed forth. The miraculous source was used to cure fever and dropsy. The St. Ragenufle chapel was built on the site of the source in 1953. The saint's reliquary is kept in the St. Peter church, formerly known as the St. Ragenufle church and rebuilt in 1781.

Glimes is a rural village; in the XIXth century, it had two breweries and a mill. Glimes is mostly known for the so-called "Roman tomb", a Roman tumulus located near the crossroads of the Jodoigne-Gembloux and Namur-Leuven roads. The tumulus has a diameter of 50 m and a height of 11 m.

Opprebais is also a rural village; in 1821, it had two watermills. A sandtone quarry was exploited in the 1970s. The Romanesque St. Aubain church (revamped in the XVI-XVIIth century) shows a series of tombstones from the XVI-XVIIIth century and Gothic furniture from the XIIth century. The famous windmill of Opprebais was built in 1826 with wood and rebuilt in 1850 with bricks.

Piétrebais is located in a hilly area. From the heights of the village, the lion of Waterloo, distant of 27 km, can be seen when the weather is very fine. The village is named after the brook Piétrebais, said to have been named after the big stones (in French, pierres) found on its banks.
Since 2000, Piétrebais has been organizing every year at the end of August the Scarecrow's Festival. A giant straw scarecrow called Petbaye, after the Walloon name of the village, was created in 2000.

Roux-Miroir is the highest village of Incourt. It was famous in the XIXth century for its pavers; it also had a wind mill (1831-1891) and two breweries. The Romanesque tower of the St. Martin church dates back to 1150; the rest of the church was rebuilt in 1860.

Source: Régionale Brabant Wallon - FUNDP website

Ivan Sache, 16 January 2006

Municipal flag of Incourt

The municipal flag of Incourt, as communicated by the municipal administration, is diagonally divided (per bend) yellow-black with a key placed vertically along the hoist.
According to the Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et germanophones, the Heraldry and Vexillology Council of the French Community proposed another design, as Écartelé en sautoir noir et jaune chargé à la hampe d'une clé blanche, le panneton vers le large (Quartered per saltire black and yellow a white key at hoist with the ward hoistwise).

The colours of the flag are taken from the municipal arms, which are:
De sable au lion contourné d'or, armé et lampassé de gueules, tenant entre ses pattes une clef d'argent posée en pal, le panneton en haut et contourné, le tout accompagné à senestre d'un flanchis du même ("Sable a lion contourned or armed and langued gules holding a key argent [...] in sinister a flanchis of the same").
A flanchis is basically a small saltire; more or less, a flanchis is to a saltire what a crosslet is to a cross (there are several definitions of the flanchis).
The image shown by Servais seems to indicate that the new municipality of Incourt kept the arms of the old one (before the municipal reform). The Heraldry Council stated that the saltire proposed on the flag would recall the flanchis. Anyway, the flag in use did not retain the proposed saltire.

Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 16 January 2006