Lonzée

consult the map of Lonzée

Population

1,813

Surface area

532 ha

How it got its name

Lonceus, Lonceia, in the 13th century, Lonsees (1289), from gentilice Lonceius (?)

Inhabitants

Lonzinois

Whereabouts

Residential village in the loamy Hesbaye area, on the Harton, tributary of the River Orneau, with an altitude of between 135 and 184 m
Railway station, N 4.

History

From the late 19th century up to the Second World War, Lonzée boasted an industry that was undoubtedly in a class of its own in Belgium: green earth or terre-verte mining, extracting the glauconite or green clay mass formed in the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era (135 million to at least 65 million years). The earth is used to make dyes (in Germany and Austria) and stucco mixed with Grez-Doiceau chalk.
The numbers of living creatures discovered include both marine (mosasaurs, fish and mollusca) and terrestrial (reptiles, turtles) animals. Excavations and the etymology are indicative of a prehistoric and Gallo-Roman influence. There were three distinct entities in the Middle Ages : Harton, Argenton and Lonzée on the periphery of the duchy of Brabant and the earldom of Namur. The 1357 Maastricht Treaty established that the border between the two provinces should be at the Lonzée and Harton stream, which divided the village in two: Lonzée in the north and Argenton in the south. The border was disputed by Gembloux abbey, which coveted the property of the abbey of Cistercian nuns located in Argenton since 1229. The jurisdictional dispute proceedings were instituted by the States of Brabant and those of Namur and ended when the Ancien Regime drew to a close. The conflict also focused on the status of Lonzée : the village was freehold land with a special tax system but was dependent upon the Gembloux region, particularly for administration and justice. Lonzée was reputed to be an area where witches abounded. Witch trials were in held in the Gembloux high court of justice during the 1637-1638 period. During one long month, five women were flung into prison, interrogated and tortured before they all met the same fate: strangled and burned and their possessions sold to offset the costs of the so-called trials. When the Ancien Regime ended Argenton was attached to Lonzée and separated from the Gembloux region. When the municipalities were merged in 1965, the village returned to Gembloux.