^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Incourt (Municipality, Province of Walloon Brabant, Belgium)

Municipal flag of Incourt - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 16 January 2006

Presentation of Incourt and its villages
Municipal flag of Incourt

See also:

Presentation of Incourt and its villages

The municipality of Incourt (3,673 inhabitants in 1994; 3,881 ha) is located in Walloon Brabant. It is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Gilmes, Incourt, Opprebais, Piètrebais 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. Ragenufle died on 14 July 650. Her parents showed their repentance by building a sanctuary of her tomb, where several miracles occurred. A procession created in 1112 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's church, formerly known as the St. Ragenufle's 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's 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.

Piètrebais 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 Piètrebais, said to have been named after the big stones (in French, pierres) found on its banks.
Since 2000, Piètrebais organizes every year at the end of August the Scarecrow's Festival. A giant straw scarecrow called Petbaye (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 is diagonally divided (per bend) yellow-black with a key placed vertically along the hoist.

Flag proposal for Incourt - not used - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 16 January 2006

According to the Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et germanophones, the Heraldry and Vexillology Council of the French Community proposed the following design:
Ecartelé 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 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.

There are several definitions of the flanchis. A flanchis is basically a small saltire; more or less, a flanchis is to a saltire what a crosslet is to a cross.
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 Council stated that the saltire proposed on the flag would recall the flanchis. Anyway, the flag in use does not show the proposed saltire.

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