Hamoir

Hamoir is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian, in the far south of the province of Liege and located at the confluence of the Ourthe and the Néblon.

Population on 1 January 2016, (3896 people), 1939 men and 1957 women, with a density of 140.14 inhabitants per km² in an area of ​​27.80 km².

The municipality consists of the following sub-municipalities: Hamoir proper, Comblain-Fairon, and Filot.

Hamoir is part of the electoral district of Nandrin and the administrative district of Huy. Besides the old town of Hamoir, it brings together since the merger of the 1977 common Comblain-Fairon of Public northeast and the village of Filot east.

The town is part of four different natural regions: the Ardennes in the woods east of Filot, Calestienne in Filot, the Famenne in much of Hamoir, Comblain Fairon and La Tour and the Condroz and Sparmont Lawe.

Hamoir is twinned with the French town of Saulxures-sur-Moselotte, chief town of the Vosges department, and with the German town of Wenigumstadt, northwest of Bavaria.

The town is part of the Regional Group of Economic valleys of the Ourthe and Amblève (GREOA) and the tourism house of Ourthe-Amblève.

Hamoir is essentially a rural commune. The Ourthe valley through the town from south to north contributes to its tourism development primarily in Hamoir and Comblain-la-Tour (SNCB stations, campsites, hotels, restaurants). The Ourthe successively receives the Néblon Hamoir, the Bloquay to Fairon and Boe in Comblain-la-Tour. Hamoir also has a dairy processing plant and has many shops (mostly in the rue du Pont). The town is crossed by the National Route 66 that serves as a place marker. At Huy, one speaks of the 'road Hamoir'.

Sections

• The town of Hamoir has three old towns and four villages:
• Comblain-Fairon, town that consisted of two villages:
• Comblain-la-Tour, which took eight years for its jazz festival; the festival was revived in 2009 on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the first edition,
• Fairon, concentric village around its church,
• Filot, village of composer Edward Senny (1923-1980),
• Hamoir, administrative center since the merger in 1977.

It also has several hamlets: Xhignesse, Tabreux, Lassus, Comblinay, Lawe, Sparmont, Chirmont and Insegotte.

Description of the village

The village of Hamoir is mainly concentrated at the bottom of the Ourthe valley at the place of its confluence with the Néblon and on the west side of the hill, about 119 m to the bridge, 12 km upstream of the confluence of the Ourthe and Amblève, 39 km from Liège and 24 from Huy. Located mainly in Famenne, the old town of Hamoir grouped three 'entities': Xhignesse on the right bank downstream, Hamoir center and Hamoir-Lassus upstream, also on the right bank.

History

There is mention of 'Hamoir' for the first time in a charter dated 895 in which a Wéséric gives his vassal Berting property situated in Hamor. But soon the final script becomes Hamoir. According to Dr. L. Thiry, the place name derives from the Germanic Hammer, marking the place of an old hydraulic industry.

As detailed from the source, the Hamoir site has been occupied since the Merovingian period, but it seems a prehistoric occupation is not excluded. In medieval and modern times, the village was within the county of Logne which itself was part of the Abbey of Stavelot. The county was divided into four districts, including that of Hamoir which also included the towns of Ferrières, Filot, Sy, Logne Vieuxville and Lorcé.

The earliest traces of a settlement inhabited Hamoir back to the Merovingian period. There are indeed at a place called 'Tombeux' on a small hill between the present villages of Hamoir and Xhignesse a funerary necropolis dated from the sixth century. This is one of the largest in Belgium with some two hundred and fifty tombs discovered in 1967. The use of the site spans about four generations of the middle of the sixth to around the eighth century. The importance of the cemetery indicates that this was essentially a small rural agrarian community.

The grave field is located on the southwest side of the hill, and stretches about 100 meters long and 60 wide. The occupation is gradually from west to east.

The cemetery is characterized by tombs carved into the slate rock of the promontory. Unlike other Merovingian cemeteries of the same time, the orientation of the deceased is not North-South and East-West as is customary at the time. This reflects a Germanic influence is still present in the region. Note also the importance of some graves surrounded by several holes in which were housed piles for forming a fence around the grave showing the higher social importance of the deceased.

In its history, Hamoir suffered various wars that several times caused the destruction of the bridge crossing over the Ourthe from the legendary road from Limburg and Condroz and whose origins date back to antiquity.

After a reconstruction in 1556 because of its poor condition, it collapsed again in 1573 during a major flood. It was then rebuilt at the cost of many important loans that the inhabitants of Hamoir recovered by the imposition of a rite of passage (toll). But during the Thirty Years War, the bridge was destroyed by order of Liege States to protect Condroz the installation of the winter camp of the army of Piccolomini. Shortly after its reconstruction in 1637, the bridge was again demolished by order of the captain of the company of Ouffet, nearby village, Jean of Crisgnée. It was only in 1768 after the takeover by the States of Liège; claims and the rite of passage to the inhabitants of Hamoir that the bridge was rebuilt. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, communal property was greatly reduced because of debt and war damage, aid and numerous reconstructions of the bridge. Unfortunately it was demolished again in 1940.

Notable buildings and monuments

The farm castle of Rennes, located at the end of the possessions of the Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy. The current buildings date mostly from the seventeenth and eighteenth century, at which time they were modified. A coat of arms engraved in stone dated 1750 was found set in the main building, in which appears a crook and miter; we learn that this property was in the hands of the Canons Regular of the Norbertine order. Also found inside a chimney bottom ‘toque’ iron weapons that were supposedly from the period of the King of Spain and dated 1651.

Castle of the Old Furnace located at the entrance of Hamoir, current Town hall of the village, was an old forge and an old furnace already in the fifteenth century. Moreover, iron slag was found near the castle. The castle consists of two buildings, vis-à-vis, each flanked by two towers, one main body, the other main buildings.

Hamoir-Lassus Castle, upstream on the right bank, which was the residence of hereditary Mayeurs of the village. The oldest part of the castle is a small dungeon built in the early fourteenth century. During the eighteenth century, the building was totally redesigned in Louis XIV style. It then underwent a major overhaul under the leadership of 'Puck' Chaudoir, Mayor of Hamoir between 1907 and 1920, and the castle owner. Only the front side Ourthe and the small dungeon were the least touched. Apart from a small chapel founded in 1633 by the Maillen, a chapel dedicated to St. Peter is located next to the castle. It was founded in the year 1396. In addition to its Renaissance-style interior style, one notices the tombstones of families Donéa and Maillen.

Jean Del Cour: a figure of Hamoir and the Liège landscape

Jean Del Cour was born in 1631 in Hamoir, died in 1707 in Liège, Inspired by his carpenter father, he was a strong sculptor, and he enjoyed a certain reputation in his time. Many of his works are in churches in Liège and around Belgium. One example is the series of statues of St. Jacques church in Liege, lime wood, material for which he was a master, and painted to imitate marble, those of the Church of the Friars Minor, the chapel of Saint sacrament of the collegiate St. Martin, the tomb of the 9th Bishop of Ghent in St. Bavo Cathedral, or the altar of the abbey church of Herckenrode today in the Church of Our Lady of Hasselt. But his most famous works of the Pays de Liège are definitely Virgin and Child enthroned atop the fountain street Vinâve-d'Île, the Three Graces atop the Perron Liège Market Square and the work that revealed the Christ bronze Arches Bridge, now preserved in the Cathedral of St. Paul.

Source: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamoir