Last modified: 2007-11-03 by ivan sache
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![[Flag of Erquelinnes]](../images/b/be-whter.gif)
Municipal flag of Erquelinnes - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 26 March 2006
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The municipality of Erquelinnes (9,579 inhabitants on 1 January 2006; 4,423 ha) is located 13 km north-east of Maubeuge (France), on the river Sambre, and separated from the French town of Jeumont by the border. The municipality of Erquelinnes is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Erquelinnes, Bersillies-l'Abbaye, Grand-Reng, Hantes-Wihéries, Montignies-Saint-Christophe and Solre-sur-Sambre.
Erquelinnes dates back to the Roman period and there are still big
farms in the municipality. However, the region was dramatically
modified following the industrial revolution in the XIXth century. The
population of Erquelinnes increased from 550 inhabitants in 1850 to
3,500 in 1910.
A new center was built close to the Sambre (canalized in the 1820s) and
the newly built railway. A river basin, locally known as the Darse, was
built at the end of the XIXth century in order to load barges with coal
nuts produced by the local factory; via Landrecies, the Canal of
Saint-Quentin, and eventually the rivers Oise and Seine, the barges
transported the Belgian coal to Paris. Sand was also shipped to the
local glassworks of Boussois. Today, sand is transported by road and
barges are less en less frequent, so that the basin has been transformed
to a leasure river port. The railway lines built by the Compagnie des
Chemins de Fer du Nord belge, founded c. 1840, allowed transportation
of the coal from the basin of Charleroi to the north of France. The
company belonged to the Rothschild family until the Second World War
and was then nationalized. There was also a state railway, today
supressed and to be replaced by a foot and cyclist path (part of the
system known as Ravel - Réseau Autonome de Voies Lentes / Autonomous
Network of Slow Ways).
Source: Visite d'Erquelinnes website
Ivan Sache, 26 March 2006
The municipal flag of Erquelinnes is white with a red emblem made of
two parallelograms and four trapezoids fitting together in a spiral to
form an hexagonal "e" letter.
According to Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et
germanophones, the municipal flag of Erquelinnes is
the only municipal flag in Wallonia (and maybe in Belgium?) to include
a logotype.
Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 26 March 2006