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Burg-Reuland (Municipality, Province of Liège, Belgium)

Municipal flag of Burg-Reuland - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 3 June 2007

Presentation of Burg-Reuland and its villages
Municipal flag of Burg-Reuland

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Presentation of Burg-Reuland and its villages

The municipality of Burg-Reuland (3,957 inhabitants on 1 July 2007; 10,896 ha) is the southernmost municipality of the Province of Liège and of the German-speaking Community. The municipality of Burg-Reuland is made of the former municipalities of Reuland and Thommen, including a total of 26 villages and hamlets, some of them being really tiny (for instance, Weidig, with two housew and three inhabitants).

Thommen (228 inh.), the administrative seat of the municipality, is the oldest village of the municipality, already shown on the Withem map made in 360-400 for the Roman Emperor Theodosus the Great. Thommen, then known as Tumbas, was transfered to the abbey of Prüm in 816, with confirmation in 846. The Frankish kings had a manor (palatium ad tumbas) in the neighborhood.

Burg-Reuland (aka Reuland; 336 inh.), is dominated by the ruins of Reuland's fortress (in German, burg). A document of the abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy from 755 lists the chapel of Rullant. The fortress succeeded a Frankish manor (palatium) in the XIIth century and was owned by several noble families. It was purchased in 1830 by the local family Mayeres and transferred to the municipality in 1900. Restoration started the next year with the help of the Prussian provincial administration. A second restoration was funded by the Belgian state in 1950 since the ruins had been damaged during the Battle of the Bulge in winter 1944-1945. Archeological excavations have been organized by the German-speaking Community and the University of Liège. The oldest part of the fortress is the north-western angle tower, from the XVth century.

Ouren (129 inh.) was a free domains and had once a fort and walls, of which nearly nothing has been preserved. The three-country point, where the borders of Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg merge, is located near Ouren. The Europe Monument, made of five erected stones, was set up there on 22 October 1977.

Stoubach (locally known as Stubisch; 24 inh.) is the Belgian part of a village crossed by the border with Germany, here the river Our. The old ford was replaced by a bridge, which was destroyed during the Second World War and rebuilt in 1953-1955, reuniting the village. The German part is Stupbach, part of the municipality of Lützkampen.

Diepert (3 inh.) is made of the Zum Jägerhaus inn, owned by the Schroeder family. In 1925, Peter Schroeder was asked to choose between the German and Belgian citizenships; he decided to be a Belgian, not on a nationalistic basis, but because the nearest Belgian railway station, where he had to pick up his customers with a cart, was much closer (4 km) than the nearest German station (14 km). At that time, the inn was crossed by the border, so that the main entrance was in Germany but the next window in Belgium. After Schroeder had become a Belgian, the border was modified so that the whole inn is in Belgium - but the vegetable garden is still crossed by the border. Electricity and water are supplied by German companies, whereas the phone line was set up by Belgacom.

Source: Municipal website

Ivan Sache, 2 June 2007

Municipal flag of Burg-Reuland

The municipal flag of Burg-Reuland can be seen hoisted over the big tower that is the most impressive part of the remains of the fortress. The flag is yellow with the municipal coat of arms.

According to Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et germanophones, the arms of Burg-Reuland, D'azur à la bande vivrée d'or ("Azure a bend dancetty or") were adopted by the Municipal Council on 24 January 1977 and confirmed by Royal Decree on 26 January 1979. They are similar to the arms used before the municipal reform, adopted by the Municipal Council on 24 April 1951, confirmed by Royal Decree on 29 September 1952 and published in the Belgian official gazette on 26 October 1952. The bend dancetty appears on the "scel" (seal) of Arnold, lord of Reuland, used to seal a deed in 1311.
However, the coat of arms shown on the municipal website is not exactly the one used on the flag, which has a light blue field and a different serrated line.

Ivan Sache & Pascal Vagnat, 20 April 2008