Mazy

consult the map of Mazy 

Population

1,050

Surface area

564 ha

How it got its name

The place name Mazy refers to a small farm or "métairie". The locality presumably sprang up from a small farm undoubtedly owned a by farmer from a villa located close to the Bavay-Tongres Roman road running a few kilometres to the west of this place.

Inhabitants

Mazycien(enne)s

Whereabouts

The village is divided from north to south by the River Orneau, a tributary of the Sambre. The River Ripjoux culminates in the River Orneau at Mazy, while the Ligne finds its opening in the same river close to the Falnuée farm-castle on the south-west tip of the locality.
The altitude in Mazy varies by 80 or so metres. The highest point is at 185 metres.
Mazy generally spreads out on both sides of the Namur-Nivelles highway and the Gembloux-Tamines railway line along which the main street runs parallel. As the Orneau Valley becomes narrower towards the confluence of the Orneau and the Ligne, the houses stop in the southern part of the village.
The area's subsoil contains black marble. This calcareous rock belongs to the northern flank of a large asymmetrical fold called the Namur syncline. The bed is 12 metres thick. This limestone has all the qualities of marble (that is, a rock likely to assume a fine gloss that it keeps for a long time). It is also filled with finely divided organic materials that are spread uniformly throughout the mass, to which it owes its deep black colour.
Accessible via the N3 93 Namur-Nivelles highway, via the public transport line 144a Gembloux-Jemeppe-sur-Sambre.
Falnuée may be reached via the public transport line 347a Gembloux-St Martin-
Tongrinne-Onoz.
 

• History

Mazy is first mentioned in 1265.
Under the Ancien Regime Mazy's present territory used to be divided between three separate lordships: Mazy, Falnuée, and Hermoye included in the earldom of Namur and directly dependent on the earl, who exercised high justice there until 1626.
On that date, Philip IV, king of Spain pledged the jurisdictional lordship of Mazy, Monceau and Falnuée to François-Lamoral de St. Aldegonde, baron of Noircarmes
The lordship was taken over in 1680 by Charles Pellissonnier, whose family, ennobled by Charles the Fifth, was of Burgundian origin. It was then passed on by marriage to the Meldeman de Bouré family in the 18th century.
Albert-Eugène de Meldeman de Bouré was the last jurisdictional lord of Mazy, Monceau and Falnuée.
Hermoie was one of the lordships the king of Spain Philip IV granted in 1628 to General Jean t’Serclaes, earl of Tilly, as a reward for services to the Catholic cause during the 30 Years War. The lordship was pledged in 1755, to squires Albert-Ignace and Pierre-Joseph le Mède, canons of Namur cathedral. The former transferred his entitlements to his brother, who was the last jurisdictional lord of Hermoie.
In 1692, Louis XV, engaged in a war against Spain and its allies, decided to launch the siege of Namur. On 25 May, he stayed at Mazy castle from where his historiographer Jean Racine wrote letters to his friend Nicolas Boileau.
It was in 1784 that Jean-Joseph Jaumenne, an ironmaster from Marche-les-Dames, had a forge hammer built in Mazy followed by a rolling mill and a forge.
When France annexed the Austrian Netherlands in 1795, Mazy became an independent municipality of the department of Sambre-et-Meuse. The neighbouring village of Onoz was attached to it until 1819.
The Dejaiffe brothers built a marble mill in the village in 1854, next to the River Orneau, which supplied the power.
After taking over his brother's share, Télésphore Dejaiffe built a steam-powered marble plant next to the Gembloux-Tamines railway line.
To start with the black marble was extracted on the surface in the Golzinnes and Hermoye countryside while the mining activities got underway in underground galleries in 1870.
The Dejaiffe plant was shut down in the final quarter of the 20th century.
St. Barbe parish was established in 1871 prior to which Mazy's spiritual needs were tended to by Bossière.
Mazy lost its status as an independent municipality as a result of the merger of the municipalities, on 2 January 1977. Whereupon the locality joined the municipality of Gembloux-sur-Orneau, which was given the title Gembloux in 1980.

• A must-see

The neo-roman style St. Barbe parish church was built in 1869. It has three naves separated by two rows of four stone columns.
Hermoye farm, whose buildings date from the 16th to the 18th century, lies to the north-east of the village, near to the Ripjoux and a wood.
The Falnuée farm-castle is located on the southern tip of Mazy. The buildings were constructed in the 17th and 19th centuries, except for the 13th century keep.
The farm-castle and neighbouring land boast an 18-hole golf course.
The difficult levels on the course are appropriate for all types of players in this admirable historical setting.
Located on the edge of the Namur-Nivelles highway, the water tower was designed to moderate the pressure of water travelling in the pipes and prevent any sudden excess pressures or pressure surges. The Mazy tower is used to restrict the downstream pressure corresponding to the 200 metres piezométric head.
The site is also a major supply network valve node where water from the Tailfer plant and the Spontin catchment point is distributed towards the various supply routes for the Brussels urban area.