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Last modified: 2007-11-03 by ivan sache
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![[Flag of Amay]](../images/b/be-wlgam.gif)
Municipal flag of Amay - Image by Ivan Sache, 17 November 2001
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The municipality of Amay (13,147 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 2,761 ha) is located on the river Meuse, 10 km upstream from Huy, on the border of the regions of Condroz and Hesbaye. The municipality of Huy is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Amay, Ampsin, Flône, Jehay and Ombret-Rawsa.
Amay was already settled in the Neolithic; in the Ist-IVth centuries, it
was an important village (vicus) controlling the crossing of the
Meuse on the Tongeren-Arlon Roman way.
The name of Amay appeared in 636 under the Frankish King Dagobert I.
Amay was an ecclesiastic domain, the parish (incorporating Amay,
Ampsin, Fize-Fontaine, Jehay, Rogerée, Ombret and Rawsa) being ruled by
the collegiate church's chapter of canons, established around 1091. The
Sts. George and Ode collegiate church succeeded an earlier sanctuary.
Its building, in the so-called Ottonian style, started in 1089; the
nave and the two lateral towers are the only remains of the original
church. The median tower was added in 1525 and the church was
completely revamped in the XVIIIth century. In the choir of the church
can be seen St. Chrodoara's sarcophagus, discovered there in 1977. It
is a masterpiece of Merovingian art, made of limestone extracted in
Saint-Dizier (Champagne, France). The upper part of the lid shows a
female character wearing a long dress and holding a staff in her right
hand; the flanks of the lid are decorated with interlacing and foliage.
Merovingian sarcophagi with human representations are extremely rare. A
writing on the side of the lid says that the noble Chrodoara funded
sanctuaries with her own goods. When found, the sarcophagus was nearly
empty, the relics of the saint having been transferred much earlier into
a shrine. Sts. George and Ode shrine, dated 1240-1250, keeps the relics
of St. Chrodoara / Ode and of other famous saints. The shrine is
decorated with scenes from the saints' life. One of them show a pilgrim
with three scallops, which is believed to be the oldest known
representation of a Santiago pilgrim in this region of Belgium.
St. Chrodoara / Ode (629/635-723/730) was the widow of Duke of
Aquitaine Boggis. Near Ombret, she threw her staff beyond the Meuse and
promised to build a sanctuary on the staff's landing point.
In 1288, Bishop of Liège John of Flanders swapped his rights with the canons for the domain of Jupille but kept the right of justice. In
1310, Bishop Thibaut of Bar granted to the chapter the appointment of
the members of the justice court. The domain then included Amay,
Ampsin, Bodegnée and Fize-Fontaine; it was managed by an avoué
depending of the feudal court of Grand-Modave. The avoué lived in a fortress locally known as the Romanesque Tower, probably built in the
XIIth century by Bishop Henri of Leez, together with many others, to
protect the Principality of Liège. The 15-m high tower was originally
built away from the village and the church, and watched the valley of
Meuse. In the XIVth century, the avoué of Amay was the famous Rasse
of Waroux-Warfusée, involved in the War of the Awans and the Waroux that nearly suppressed the local nobility. The Périlleux de Rochelée were avoués of Amay from 1473 to the French Revolution; their last heir sold the
tower in 1913.
Amay was severely damaged during the XVII-XVIIIth centuries wars. Until
the Dutch rule, the main resource of Amay was alum, whose extraction
employed up to 160 workers. Coal was also extracted in the XIXth
century, but unsuccessfully. At the end of the XIXth century, the main
industries in Amay were limestone and sand quarries, brickyards and a
tilery.
Flône is known for the abbey founded in 1080 by three brothers on a plot granted by the Bishop of Liège on the confluency of the brook of Flône with the Meuse. The convent, ran by Augustinian canons, became an abbey in 1139. The abbey owned a big domain and rights on the neighbouring woods and fishing in the Meuse, as well as several farms. The abbey was looted and burnt by the Prince of Orange in 1568 and suppressed after the French Revolution. It was resettled in 1921 as the mother house of the Ladies of Christian Education.
Jehay was mentioned for the first time in a chronicle dated 1085. In
1130, Henri of Jehain is listed among the free men, therefore the
ancient nobles, of the country of Liège. His descendants were involved
in several wars, including the War of the Awans and the Waroux. The castle of
Jehay was built in the XIIIth century, of which only the cellars and
parts of the donjon have been kept. It was destroyed during the war
opposing Hornes and La Marck and completely rebuilt in the XVI-XVIIth
centuries. In 1680, it was transfered to the van den Steen, who recently
sold it to the Province of Liège.
Jehay is the birth village of the engineer Zénobe Gramme (1826-1901),
who spent most of his life in France. Working as an cabinetmaker for
the silversmith Christofle, Gramme set up the prototype of the
industrial dynamo in 1869. The industrial Hippolyte Fontaine
(1833-1910) founded in 1871 with Gramme the Société des Machines
magnéto-électriques Gramme. The second protoype was shown in 1871 in
the House of Metallurgy and Industry of Liège. The then so-called
"Gramme's engine" allowed the electrolytic deposit of 600 g of silver
per hour on brass flatware (galvanoplasty). The inventor and the
industrial worked together for 30 years, improving Grammes' engine and
showing it could not only generate direct current but also produce
mechanic energy, then superseding the steam engine.
The womens' Cistercian abbey of Paix-Dieu was founded in 1244. Arnould of Corswarem founded in 1239-1241 in the village of Oleye a monastery for nuns from the abbey of Val-Benoît. A few years later, the nuns moved to Paix-Dieu, which was a more suitable site, with the confluency of several brooks powering a grain mill. In 1257, the abbey domain covered 453 ha, which is relatively small compared to earlier abbeys such as Villers-la-Ville (10,000 ha) and Orval (7,000 ha). The abbey was rebuilt in the XVIIth century in the Mosan Renaissance style. It was suppressed after the French Revolution and never resettled, but the farms and the mills were still used by their new owners.
Source: Municipal website
Ivan Sache, 17 May 2007
The municipal flag of Amay is horizontally divided
yellow-blue-yellow-blue-yellow-blue-yellow (seven stripes) with a
vertical red stripe placed along the hoist, covering one third of the
flag width.
According to Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et germanophones, the flag was adopted by the Municipal
Council on 28 June 1994 and confirmed by the Executive of the French
Community on 22 December 1994. It is a banner of the municipal arms
rotated orthogonally (that is with the shield chief placed along the
flag hoist). The municipal arms are based on the arms of the lords of
Amay.
Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 17 May 2007
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