Fleurus (; wa, Fleuru) is a city and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

Wallonia Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—al ...

located in the

province of Hainaut Hainaut (, also , , ; nl, Henegouwen ; wa, Hinnot; pcd, Hénau), historically also known as Heynowes in English, is a province of Wallonia and Belgium. To its south lies the French department of Nord, while within Belgium it borders (cloc ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

. It has been the site of four major battles. The municipality consists of the following districts: Brye, Heppignies, Fleurus, Lambusart, Saint-Amand,

Wagnelée Wagnelée ( wa, Wagnlêye) is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Fleurus, located in the Arrondissement of Charleroi, province of Hainaut, Belgium. The Wagnelée post code is 6223 and the telephone zone code is 071. Wag ...

, Wanfercée-Baulet (wa: ''Wanfercêye-Bålet''), and Wangenies.

History

Traces of agriculture dating back to the

Neolithic Age The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

were found in area known as Fleurjoux and Neuve Baraque. Later the site saw the construction of the Chaussée Brunehaut, a road network of uncertain origin, perhaps attributable to the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

. In October 1155,

Henry IV of Luxembourg Henry the Blind ( – 14 August 1196; French ''Henri l'Aveugle'', Dutch ''Hendrik de Blinde''), sometimes called Henry IV of Luxembourg, was his father's heir as count of Namur from 1136 until his death, and heir of his mother's family as count of ...

, also Count of Namur enfranchised the municipality which became the city of Fleurus. Henry IV had a castle in Heppignies. The town has given its name to three battles fought in the area : *The Battle of Fleurus (1622) in the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of batt ...

. *The

Battle of Fleurus (1690) The Battle of Fleurus, fought on 1 July 1690, was a major engagement of the Nine Years' War. In a bold and masterful envelopment, Marshal Luxembourg, commanding a French army of some 35,000 men, inflicted a severe defeat on Prince Waldeck’ ...

in the

Nine Years' War The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between Kingdom of France, France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by t ...

. *The

Battle of Fleurus (1794) The Battle of Fleurus, on 26 June 1794, was an engagement during the War of the First Coalition, between the army of the First French Republic, under General Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, and the Coalition Army ( Britain, Hanover, Dutch Republic, and ...

in the

French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars (french: Guerres de la Révolution française) were a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from 1792 until 1802 and resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted France against Britain, Austria, Pruss ...

. Two days before the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armies of the Sevent ...

in 1815

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

defeated the Prussians in what is known as the

Battle of Ligny The Battle of Ligny, in which French troops of the Armée du Nord under the command of Napoleon I defeated part of a Prussian army under Field Marshal Blücher, was fought on 16 June 1815 near Ligny in what is now Belgium. The result was a t ...

, although the pivotal action took place just north of Fleurus. The battles have been commemorated in ship names of the countries involved, which in turn has led to

Fleurus Island Fleurus Island is an island lying south of Delaite Island in Wilhelmina Bay, off the west coast of Graham Land, Antarctica. it was shown on an Argentine government chart of 1950, and was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee The UK ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

being named after SS ''Fleurus'', a Norwegian trawler operated between the Falkland Islands and the whaling station on South Georgia in the 1920s. The "Rue de Fleurus" is on the Left Bank in Paris. In World War II, the only fighting near Fleurus was a tank battle southwest of the town at Vieux Campinaire in September 1944. was added to the municipality's area in the early 2000s.

Economy

Children's publisher Proost is a major local employer. The Institut national des radioéléments produces radioactive isotopes for medical use.

Historical population

References

External links

* {{Authority control Cities in Wallonia Municipalities of Hainaut (province) Battle of Ligny locations