1979 Gare SNCB de Lonzée (aujourd'hui détruite)

Lonzée ( wa, Lonzêye) is a village of

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—alo ...

and a district of the municipality of

Gembloux Gembloux (; wa, Djiblou; nl, Gembloers, ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Namur, Belgium. On 1 January 2006 the municipality had 21,964 inhabitants. The total area is 95.86 km², yielding a population dens ...

, located in the province of

province of Namur Namur (; nl, Namen ; wa, Nameur) is a province of Wallonia, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders (clockwise from the West) on the Walloon provinces of Hainaut, Walloon Brabant, Liège and Luxembourg in Belgium, and the French depart ...

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 th ...

. It was a municipality in its own right until the

fusion of the Belgian municipalities The fusion of the Belgian municipalities (French: ''fusion des communes'', Dutch: ''fusie van Belgische gemeenten'') was a Belgian political process that rationalized and reduced the number of municipalities in Belgium between 1975 and 1983. In 19 ...

in 1945. The village is located in

Hesbaye The Hesbaye ( French, ), or Haspengouw (Dutch and Limburgish, ) is a traditional cultural and geophysical region in eastern Belgium. It is a loamy plateau region which forms a watershed between the Meuse and Scheldt drainage basins. It has be ...

and extends along the Arton (a stream that is a tributary of the

Orneau The Orneau ( wa, Ôrnô) is a river in Belgium. It is a tributary of the Sambre and therefore sub-tributary of the Meuse. The Orneau flows from north to south, through the province of Namur Namur (; ; nl, Namen ; wa, Nameur) is a city and m ...

). It is located about 3 km southeast of the city of Gembloux.

Etymology

In its earliest written mention (1289) the village is called ''Lonsees''.

History

Three different hamlets are mentioned in medieval sources: Harton (Arton), Argenton and Lonzée, located on the border of the

Duchy of Brabant The Duchy of Brabant was a State of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant and formed the heart of the historic Low Countries, part of the Burgundian Netherlands from 1430 and of the Habsburg Neth ...

and the

county of Namur Namur ( nl, Namen) was a county of the Carolingian and later Holy Roman Empire in the Low Countries, a region in northwestern Europe. Its territories largely correspond with the present-day Belgian arrondissement Namur plus the northwestern part ...

. In 1357, the border between both is delimited by the Arton (Harton) which divides the village into two parts: Lonzée to the north (

) and Argenton to the south (

). This border would be disputed for a long time: conflicts and trials would come one after the other during the

Ancien Régime ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for "ancient, old" ** Société des anciens textes français * the French for "former, senior" ** Virelai ancien ** Ancien Régime ** Ancien Régime in France {{disambig ...

. During the administrative reorganisation following the collapse of the

, Lonzée merged with Argenton to create one municipality. The village was merged with the city of

(province of

Namur Namur (; ; nl, Namen ; wa, Nameur) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration. Namu ...

) because of the policy of merging municipalities (1965).

Economy

At the end of the 19th century, a unique industry emerged in Lonzée: the extraction of green earth. This involved the exploitation of a formation of

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceo ...

glauconite Glauconite is an iron potassium phyllosilicate ( mica group) mineral of characteristic green color which is very friable and has very low weathering resistance. It crystallizes with a monoclinic geometry. Its name is derived from the Greek () m ...

or green clay formed during the Cretaceous (135 to 65 million years ago). This clay was used to make dyes (in Germany and Austria) and stucco once mixed with chalk coming from

Grez-Doiceau Grez-Doiceau (; wa, Gré; nl, Graven, ) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. On January 1, 2006, Grez-Doiceau had a total population of 12,403. The total area is 55.44 km² which gives a populatio ...

. The industry came to an end during the Second World War.

Witch country

In 1637 and 1638, witchcraft trials took place before the High Court justice of Gembloux. Women in Lonzée were accused of witchcraft. For an entire month, at least five women were imprisoned, questioned, tortured and convicted before being strangled and burned. Their possessions were sold to cover the costs of the trials. These sensational trials earned Lonzée the nickname of witch country.

Heritage

The ferme d'Argenton is a former Cistercian nunnery, founded during the 13th century and abolished during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

. The moulin d'Harton (listed building) is already referred to in the documents about the property donations to the abbaye d'Argenton in 1229. It was a flour mill, a twister and ended as a cutlery workshop from the end of the 19th century until 1929. Property of the abbaye d’Argenton, it was rebuilt in 1741 and restored in 1992. The Saint-Roch church with its neo-Gothic architecture, its bricks, blue stones and slate roof, dates back to 1846. Before it was built, the Lonzinois went to Mass in Gembloux where their dead were buried.

External links

Basic information on the villageSite web de Lonzée
(unofficial site) {{coord, 50, 33, 11, N, 4, 43, 34, E, display=title, region:BE_type:city Former municipalities of Namur (province) Gembloux