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Kortemark (Municipality, Province of West Flanders, Belgium)

Flag of Kortemark - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 24 June 2006

Presentation of Kortemark and its villages
Municipal flag of Kortemark

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Presentation of Kortemark and its villages

The municipality of Kortemark (12,060 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 5,500 ha) is located 15 km east of Diksmuide and 10 km north-west of Roeselare. The municipality of Kortemark is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Kortemark, Handzame and Zarren-Werken (itself formed in 1970 by the merging of Werken and Zarren).

Kortemark (6,068 inh. in 1999; 2,051 ha) was mentioned for the first time in 1063, as Merck, a name of Frankish origin meaning something like "a settlement built in the middle of an uninhabited area". In 1281, the village of Courtemarck came into the hands of Gwijde van Dampierre, Count of Flanders. It was granted the status of feudal domain with its own administration and court.
The Louwaeghe brewery in Kortemark brews the Hapkin lager.

Handzame (3,051 inh. in 1999; 1,363 ha) was mentioned for the first time in 1085, as Hansam, a name of Germanic origin meaning something like "a spur of land in a flooded area". The early settlement was probably founded by Friesian merchants needing a safe place with an access to the sea. Years after the end of the flood, Handzame is still a significant sea port; by high tides, middle-sized ships can sail up to the aarsgat ("eel's hole"?). From there, the Flemish cloth was shipped via the river Krekebeek to the yearly market of Torhout; until the end of the XIXth century, cogghen ("horse-drawn barges"?) carried a lot of farmers every Monday to the butter's market (Boetermarkt) in Diksmuide.
Handzame is the home of the Vlaams Centrum voor Heraldiek en Genealogie (Flemish Heraldry and Genealogy Centre).

Werken (1,050 inh. in 1999; 965 ha) was mentioned for the first time (year not given by the source) in a parchmint of the St. Bertinus abbey in Saint-Omer (now in the north of France), as Weretha, which means "a wall on the water". In 1279, the village came into the hands of Gwijde van Dampierre, Count of Flanders. In 1286, the local lord allowed the building of a convent by the order of the Rijke Klaren. The buildings were sold in 1295 to the Cistercian nuns of Hemelsdale, who stayed there until the destruction of the convent by the Geuzen in 1578.
Zarren (2,061 inh. in 1999; 1,120 ha) was mentioned for the first time in 961, as Villa Sarra, a name probably built on the Celtic root ser, "quick running water". The village was in the past closely linked to the sea via the gulf of Diksmuide.

Source: Municipal website

Ivan Sache & Jan Mertens, 24 June 2006

Municipal flag of Kortemark

The municipal flag of Kortemark is vertically divided in two equal parts. The left half of the flag is yellow with a black lion with red tongue and claws, whereas the right half of the flag is a gyronny of eight blue and yellow pieces with a red escutcheon in the middle.
According to Gemeentewapens in België - Vlaanderen en Brussel, the flag and arms were adopted by the Municipal Council on 25 January 1980, confirmed by Royal Decree on 25 April 1980 and published in the Belgian official gazette on 20 June 1980.
The left part of the flag recalls the chief of the municipal arms, the leopard of the arms being a lion on the flag, whereas the right part of the flag recalls the field of the arms. Both the flag and arms combine the arms of Flanders (modern) and the arms known as Flanders ancient.
The flag of Kortemark is a kind of mirrored version of the unofficial banner of arms of West Flanders.

The coat of arms of the new municipality of Kortemark is based on the arms of the feudal domain of Kortemark, the four blue and the four yellow pieces in the field symbolizing the four components of the municipality.
The old arms of Kortemark show the arms of the lineages that ruled the domain: Baudouin (until 1127), bearing the gyronny gold and azure, and Alsace (1128-1191), bearing the lion. De Ghellinck describes the arms (indeed the seal) as follows:
Sceau aux causes du pays de Cortemarck à un écu gironné d'or et d'azur de huit pièces à l'écusson de gueules sur le tout, au chef d'or un lion de sable. Entre deux filets "s(igillum ad causas territory Cortemarck".

The arms of the modern municipality of Kortemark, granted by Royal Decree on 14 February 1842, were the same but with ten pieces instead of eight.
Servais adds that the arms of Kortemark were granted for the first time by (Dutch) Royal Decree on 10 November 1819 with the lion facing sinister, which was corrected in the 1842 Decree.
The lion was plain black in the pre-1980 version of the arms.

Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 17 June 2006