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Pepingen (Municipality, Province of Flemish Brabant, Belgium)

Pepenghien

Municipal flag of Pepingen - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 10 March 2006

Presentation of Pepingen and its villages
Municipal flag of Pepingen

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Presentation of Pepingen and its villages

The municipality of Pepingen (in French, Pepenghien; 4,347 inhabitants on 31 December 2004; 3,604 ha) is located 15 km south-west of Brussels and 5 km north-west of Halle. It is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Beert, Bellingen, Bogaarden, Elingen, Heikruis and Pepingen.

The origin of the name of Pepingen is obscure. A chart dated 1164 mentions someone named Elyas van Papenghien. In 1235, a document mentions the municipality of Papinghen or Papenghien. The name of Pepingen might come from Paap-inghen, from paap, priest or monk. Pepingen would have been a pasture belonging to monks. Another possible etymology relates Pepingen to the Frankish anthroponym Papa; Papa's estate would have later given its name to the village.
In the Middle Ages, Pepingen was located on the border between the Counties of Hainaut and Leuven, the latter being incorporating later into the Duchy of Brabant. The lords of Enghien (in Dutch, Edingen), owners of several domains in the region, supported in turn the two competiting states. The status of Beert, Bogaarden, Pepingen and Bellingen was very complicated because Hainaut and Brabant had several enclaves in these villages. This explained the ragged municipal limits which have been kept until now.
The domain of Pepingen proper belonged from the XIVth century to the beginning of the XIXth century to the Walloon d'Herbais family.

Beert is named after the word brac (mud) or the Teutonic word braak (valley). The domain was the heritage of Gertrude de Nivelles, Abbess of the Nivelles abbey, to which she ceded Beert. The domain of Nivelles, including Beert, was later transfered to the Count of Leuven. After having been transfered to the lords of Enghien, Beert reamined an enclave of Brabant inside Hainaut. In the XVIIIth century, Beert, along with Bellingen and Bogaarden, was transfered to the family of Croix, who granted a municipal administration.

Bellingen was mentioned in 1244 as Bellinghen. The village was part of the domain of the St. Gertrude's abbey in Nivelles. In the Middle Ages and under the Ancient Regime, Bellingen belonged to the Bailiwick of Enghien. The lords of Enghien built there a fortification called Wanaken, suppressed long time ago. The early boom of Bellingen dates back to 1182 with the foundation of a priory by the St. Augustine's order. The priory depended on the Augustinian abbey of Cantimpré, located near Cambrai in northern France. In 1580, the abbey was completely sacked and all the monks emigrated to Bellingen, and several new buildings were built. Bellingen increased and the priory became an abbey. In 1677, the seat of the abbey was moved to Cambrai and only a priory with four monks remained in Bellingen. After the French Revolution, the priory was sold as bien national (national good) to the Claes family.

Bogaarden was known in 1215 as Boomgaarden. Like Beert, it belonged to the abbey of Nivelles and was later an enclave of Brabant inside Hainaut ruled by the lords of Enghien. The municipal magistrates followed the Law of Uccle in the name of the lords of Enghien. Bogaarden became a Duchy in 1670.

Elingen belonged to the domain of Leeuw and later to the Duchy of Brabant. Until the late XVIIth century, it belonged to the domain of Baasbeek. It was part of the goods of the St. Peter's abbey in Ghent until the French Revolution. In contrast with the other villages of Pepingen, whose limits follow brooks or paths, the limits of Elingen are made of arbitrary, angular plot limits.

Heikruis was founded in 1024, as Hadonis crucem, by Hado, who erected a cross in order to implore God's protection upon an outpost of the fortified estate of Lettelingen. It belonged until 1815 to Hainaut, with French as official working language. The first fortified house of Ter Rijst (probably named after the many twigs, in Dutch, rijs, found in the local forest) was suppressed in 1169 upon order of the Count of Hainaut. It was rebuilt in 1234. The castle was ruled by the Van der Noot family. Knight Walter Van der Noot, Chamberlain of Duke of Burgundy Philip the Handsome, built in 1480 a new castle with a pond. During the Spanish rule in the XVIth century, Jaspar Van der Noot served Count Egmont. He set up a plot in order to set free Egmont from his jail in Ghent, but he was betrayed by a soldier. Egmont was beheaded and Van der Noot had to exile. He served later the Orange family, converted to the Calvinist religion, and was the first Colonel of the cavalry (ritmeester) of the Geuzen. The domain of Heikruis was transfered to the Roman Catholic family Völler.
The center of the village of Heikruis, located on the watershed between the brooks of Zunne and Laubecq, is the highest point of the municipality of Pepingen (91 m). The woods bos ter Rijst and bois de Strihou are located on the two sides, respectively, Dutch and French, of the linguistic border.

Source: Municipal website

There was in the past another Pepingen in Belgium, located near Mechelen and today completely forgotten.
Pepingen emerged in the Merovingian times as Pepo's estate. Pepin of Landen (aka St. Pepin or Pepin the Ancient, c. 580-640) helped in 813 King of Neustria Clothaire II (584-629) to defeat the Kingdom of Austrasia and to unify the Kingdom of the Franks under his rule. Pepin was appointed Mayor of the Palace, that is a kind of Prime Minister and de facto ruler of the kingdom. Pepin owned a big domain located between the cities of Batsheers, Rukkelingen, Mechelen and Boekhout, which was known as Terre de Pepin or Pepingen. Pepin appointed one of his vassals as the lord of Pepingen in order to settle and run the domain. The oldest known lord of Pepingen is Fastrad (aka Fastraets) van Berloz, a squire who died in 1332. A document states that a chapel with a tower and two bells, dedicated to St. Martin, existed in Pepingen in 1218. The priest of Mechelen came to Pepingen to say the mass on Sundays and holidays. The chapel was suppressed in 1863. In 1360, the local lord was Guillaume van Pepingen, whose daughter married Guillaume de Werfengeys (in French, Warfusée), who incorporated Pepingen in his domain. By the marriage of one of his grandchildren, Pepingen was transfered in 1443 to the Schrootz family, from Sint-Truiden. A few generations later, Pepingen was transfered to the famous Borchgrave d'Altena family, which built a new castle and lived there until 1920.

Source: Article on Pepingen, by Jos Schoefs

Ivan Sache, 10 March 2006

Municipal flag of Pepingen

The municipal flag of Pepingen is vertically divided black-yellow-black (1:2:1) with the municipal shield of arms in the middle.

According to Gemeentewapens in België - Vlaanderen en Brussel, the flag was adopted by the Municipal Council of 28 November 1985, confirmed by the Executive on 2 December 1985 and published in the Belgian official gazette on 8 July 1986, with the following description:
Drie banen van zwart, van geel en van zwart, lengteverhouding 1 : 2 : 1, met op het midden het wapenschild van de gemeente.

The municipal arms of Pepingen are:
Gegeerd van zilver en van sabel van tien stukken, elke geer van sabel beladen met drie gekruiste kruisen met gescherpte voet van goud. De voeten gericht naar het hart van het schild.
Gyronny ten pieces argent and sable, each gyron sable charged with three crosses recrossed or with a sharpened base pointing to the center of the shield.
The arms are nearly the same as those of Enghien.

Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 10 March 2006