Grand-Manil

consult the map of Grand-Manil 

Population

1,475

Surface area

609 ha

How it got its name

Manil comes from the Latin word mansionile meaning a small farm. The adjective serves to make a distinction between this location and Petit-Manil, a hamlet in the borough of Sauvenière.

Inhabitants

Manicien(ne)

Whereabouts

Grand-Manil represents Gembloux's natural extension towards the south-west. The River Orneau describes a loop in the village where it meets a small tributary called the Poncia.
However, Grand-Manil is also part of the Escaut basin primarily through the Orne, a small tributary of the Dyle, which crosses the eastern tip of the locality.
The altitude in Grand-Manil varies between 125 m and 167m50.
The territory of Grand-Manil forms the boundary to the west with the municipality of Chastre and therefore with the province of Walloon Brabant
Accessible via the N29 Charleroi-Tirlemont highway
The public transport lines 147a Gembloux-Fleurus-Tamines
247a Gembloux-Corroy/le/Castle -Sombreffe
347a Gembloux-St Martin-Tongrinne/Onoz
27a Gembloux-Chastre-Gentinnes-Marbais
 

• History

Connecting the Channel to the Rhine as result of its extensions in France and Germany, the Bavay-Tongres Roman road passes to the north of Grand-Manil.
The road's military, economic and social importance helped ensure the success of the regions located along its route. Already owned by Gembloux abbey in the late 12th century the Penteville farm had a name of Gallo-Roman origin, meaning painted villa,
(large farm).
Not far from Penteville farm but straying into the territory of Cortil, a burial mound was discovered in 1921 which had been worn down with the passage of time.
Buried two metres 50 down, the grave was covered with slabs.
Inside it was 2 metres long, 1.98 metres wide and 90 cm high. The centre of the vault was supported by a shale pillar. It contained a lead funerary urn, some golden, silver and bronze coins, glassware and miscellaneous bronze, iron and terracotta items.
Grand-Manil was first mentioned in the "Geste of the abbots of Gembloux" written in the late 11th century by the monk Sigebert. This states that towards 1040 the noble Robert, son of Boson de Humerée (a Sombreffe hamlet) and canon of St. Lambert in Liège, offered the Gembloux Benedictine abbey half of the Manil villa, along with three manses. The monastery acquired the rest of the property in the second half of the 11th century.
Throughout the Ancien Regime, Grand-Manil was included in the district of Gembloux established as an earldom in the 16th century. The abbot-earl had the right to exercise high justice there. Grand-Manil's history is therefore identified with that of Gembloux.
In common with many villages in the region, Grand-Manil's inhabitants had to put up with a great deal in the late 17th century and early 18th century owing to the constant passing through of troops during the wars Louis XIV waged in the Spanish Netherlands. The French artillery passed through Grand-Manil on 25 May 1692, just before the fall of Namur. Later on, in 1711, the never-ending flow of troops passing through prompted farmers to cease growing crops along the Roman road.
When France annexed the Austrian Netherlands in 1795, Grand-Manil became a municipality in the canton of Gembloux, to which the lordship of Bertinchamps was attached. The original name of the entity was reflected in the title Grand-Manil et Bertinchamps.
Up until 1931 when St. Thérèse parish church was built, Grand-Manil's spiritual needs continued to be tended by Gembloux. It was then established as an independent parish.
Regarded as one of the key representatives of Parnassues and Symbolism in Belgium, the poet and literary critic Fernand Severin (1867-1931) was born in Grand-Manil, at Penteville farm.
On 1 January 1965, Grand-Manil lost its status as an independent municipality owing to the merger of the municipalities. The village was then incorporated into Gembloux.

• A must-see

Devoted to St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, the Grand-Manil parish church was built in1930-31 according to the drawings of the architect Victor Marrès.
Thanks to its modern Dutch style, the church obviously stands apart from the other churches in the town of Gembloux.
The Tour castle estate is surrounded by walls made from local shale. At the southern corner it comprises a square 12th century keep, part of the duchy of Brabant's system of defence against the earldom of Namur nearby, a chapel devoted to St. Peter and Paul, presumably contemporaneous with the tower, and neo-classical buildings constructed in the mid 19th century.
The Moha chapel was rebuilt 1821, and is said to date from the mid 16th century.
Grand-Manil boasts several farms originating in the distant past.
The Penteville complex was rebuilt and extended in the 19th and 20th centuries on the basis of the 17th buildings. Most of Bertinchamps buildings were constructed in the 19th and 20th centuries and the place was already referred to in medieval times. La Bouverie forms a 17th century enclosed complex. Bedauwe was the location of a former mill belonging to Gembloux abbey as early as the middle ages and comprises buildings dating back to the mid 18th century.