Villers-Sainte-Gertrude ( wa, Viyé-Sinte-Djetrou) 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

Durbuy Durbuy (; wa, Derbu) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium. The total area is 156.61 km², consisting of the following districts: Barvaux, Bende, Bomal, Borlon, Durbuy, Grandhan, Heyd, Izie ...

, located in the

province of Luxembourg Luxembourg (french: Luxembourg ; nl, Luxemburg ; german: Luxemburg ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; wa, Lussimbork), also called Belgian Luxembourg, is the southernmost province of Wallonia and of Belgium. It borders on the country of Luxembourg to the ea ...

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 ...

.
A Gazetteer of the World
', volume 2 (Edinburgh, London and Dublin, 1856), p. 387. Villers-Sainte-Gertrude has been part of the province of Luxembourg only since 1839. Before that, it was part of the department of the Ourthe. The communities of Deux Rys and Roche à Frêne (detached from Harre) were attached to it in 1826. It was a fully-fledged

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 go ...

before the fusion of municipalities in 1977, and is now part of the

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

town of

. The district consists of Grand-Bru and Villers-Sainte-Gertrude and of the localities Moulin des Roches, Hiva and Champs des Cognées. The village, located on a ridge at the foot of which flows the

Aisne Aisne ( , ; ; pcd, Ainne) is a French department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. It is named after the river Aisne. In 2019, it had a population of 531,345.Ourthe The Ourthe (; Walloon: ''Aiwe d' Oûte'') is a long river in the Ardennes in Wallonia (Belgium). It is a right tributary to the river Meuse. The Ourthe is formed at the confluence of the ''Ourthe Occidentale'' (Western Ourthe) and the ''Ourthe ...

and the stream of Vieux-Fourneau is a pleasant

resort A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that tries to provide most of a vacationer's wants, such as food, drink, swimming, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping, on the premises. The term ''resort ...

highly frequented by tourists during the summer period.

History

In 966, Villers was mentioned in a document in which the

Emperor Otto I Otto I (23 November 912 – 7 May 973), traditionally known as Otto the Great (german: Otto der Große, it, Ottone il Grande), was East Francia, East Frankish king from 936 and Holy Roman Emperor from 962 until his death in 973. He was the olde ...

confirmed the possessions of the

Abbey of Nivelles The Abbey of Nivelles, is a former Imperial Abbey of the Holy Roman Empire founded in 640. It is located in Wallonia in the town of Nivelles in Province of Walloon Brabant, Belgium. Foundation The abbey was founded by Itta of Metz, the widow of Pe ...

. The land of Villers had been divested by the count of Hainaut to the monastery founded by

Gertrude of Nivelles Gertrude of Nivelles, OSB (also spelled ''Geretrude'', ''Geretrudis'', ''Gertrud''; c. 628 – 17 March 659) was a seventh-century abbess who, with her mother Itta, founded the Abbey of Nivelles, now in Belgium. Life Family and childhood The ea ...

. Pledged by the monastery of Nivelles at the end of the 16th century, the estate of Villers became the property of Val-Saint-Lambert Abbey to which it would belong until the 18th century. From the 16th to the 18th century, Villers-Sainte-Gertrude participated in the metallurgical activity of the Land of Durbuy which was happening at that time.

Figures

* J. Pondant. Enrolled in the French armies after the invasion of the Netherlands, he was in

Bayonne Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine re ...

(

Pyrénées-Atlantiques Pyrénées-Atlantiques (; Gascon Occitan: ''Pirenèus Atlantics''; eu, Pirinio Atlantiarrak or ) is a department in the southwest corner of France and of the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Pyrenees mountain range and the Atlanti ...

, France) when Napoleon was gathering troops there in order to invade Portugal. Pondant would write a dozen letters addressed to the members of his family who stayed home. He expresses his pride at becoming a corporal but hinted at the atrocities carried out by the French soldiers back from Lisbon. This correspondence, kept in France by the descendants Brisbois, has been published.

References

{{Authority control Former municipalities of Luxembourg (Belgium) Sub-municipalities of Durbuy