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Gesves (Municipality, Province of Namur, Belgium)

Municipal flag of Gesves - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 27 January 2007

Presentation of Gesves
Municipal flag of Gesves

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Presentation of Gesves

The municipality of Gesves (6,441 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 6,492 ha) is located in the south-east of Namur, in the region of Condroz. The municipality of Gesves is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Gesves, Faulx-Les Tombes, Haltinne, Mozet and Sorée.

Gesves was probably named after gengeavia, "the running water". There are indeed several sources on the municipal territory, forming eight brooks tributary of the river Samson. The villages lived in the past mostly from agriculture and extraction of sandstone, marble and clay in up to 13 quarries, all closed in the 1970s.
The caverns of Goyet, located in the village of Mozet, are considered as one of the most interesting Prehistoric sites in Europe; the site was purchased in 1986 by the municipality of Gesves. It is made of seven caverns located inside a 90-ha limestone massif. In March 1999, paleontologists have found the skeleton of a 10-year old child, dating from 4,500 years. The caverns were settled by Neandertalians and Cro-Magnons.
Gesves houses since 1968 the Provincial School of Horse Breeding and Riding, officially recognized and sponsored by the French Community, and the Wallonia-Brussels Horse-Riding League.

Ivan Sache, 27 January 2007

Municipal flag of Gesves

The flag of Gesves is quartered yellow-blue with the municipal coat of arms in the middle.
According to Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et germanophones, the flag was adopted by the Municipal Council on 19 October 1984 and confirmed by the Executive of the French Community on 18 December 1991, with the following description:
Écartelé jaune et bleu, chargé en son centre des armoiries communales, la hauteur de l'écu étant égale à la moitié du guindant.
The description prescribes the height of the coat of arms as half the height of the flag. The colours of the flag are taken from the first and fourth quarters of the arms.

The municipal arms of Gesves are "Quarterly, 1 and 4 azure a semy of crosslets or a cross of the same, 2 and 3 argent a bend gules charged with three mullets or", that is quartered with the arms of the former municipalities of Gesves and Mozet, as shown by Servais.
The arms of Gesves were granted by Royal Decree on 3 November 1931 and are derived from the arms of the oldest known lords of Gesves (who ruled Gesves until 1574), which were described in colour for Daniel de Gesves in 1357.

Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 27 January 2007