Audregnies

Audregnies is a section of the common Belgian of Quiévrain, located in Walloon region in the Province of Hainaut.

It was a common to whole share before the fusion of the communes of 1977. It is a partly agricultural village like Wihéries, but because of his situation, near Élouges and of the coal exploitations, one can include/understand it in the list of the boroughs of Coal-mining.

Amalgamated communes of the entity of Quiévrain

Quiévrain, Baisieux and Audregnies.

Etymology

Charters of the abbey of Saint-Ghislain, going back to 975 - 1200, call this locality Aldrinia, Aldrinioe, Aldrineoe, Audrignies, Audergnies. One recognizes there the radical Aldr or Audr which is almost certainly a proper name frankly Aider or Latin Aldrinus; the ending egnies or ignies means property, dwelling, or, as one said in the Early middle ages, “a manse” (mansio).

Audregnies, it is thus the property To help or of Aldrinus. Auderghem has the same direction.

History

The commune is crossed by the Brunehault roadway. One there found interesting antiquities, in particular an aqueduct belgo-Roman, made of pipes in pottery. The castle of Audregnies, of which it does not remain any more that the memory, was a powerful fortress which belonged to XIIe century, like in XVe century, with the famous family of Strépy-Harchies City. Alard de Ville founded, in 1224, in Audregnies, a monastery of Trinitaires or Mathurins which were dedicated to the repurchase of the captive Christians in the Barbary coast of the North of Africa.

Famous characters

The Abbey of the Trinity or Trinitaires

“The Abbey”, as call it the inhabitants, is a long building of style tournaisien end of the XVIIIe century, on two levels of 15 spans. It is located at the North of the town square on which it opens by a pretty blue stone door gone back to 1763 and struck ecus representing, on the left, the cross about the Trinity and, on the right, three unicorns on pattée cross. In the East of the building still rise the barn and carries orchard, vintage of 1705, only vestiges of the old monastery of Trinitaires.

In 1221, Alard de Strépy, lord of Audregnies, Harchies and other places, found with his Ide wife the convent of the Holy Trinity to the Fontaine locality of the Marshal, in wood. At that time, the order of Trinitaires was at its beginnings. It had just been created by of Provence, holy Jean de Matha, who died in 1213. The new order, in Latin Fratres ordinis Sanctae Trinitatis and Redemptionis captivorum, fell under the concerns of the moment. Indeed, at the time of the Crusades or at sea, so much the Christians whom the Moslems made of the prisoners. The purpose of the Order was thus the repurchase or the exchange of prisoners of two Mediterranean banks. One could quantify to 900.000 the prisoners saved by Trinitaires of 1200 to 1487! Very quickly the Order developed and in particular in North of France and in current Belgium without one knowing exactly why. Audregnies and Lens-on-Dendre, close to Ath, are the two principal monasteries of our areas. One thus knows in Audregnies the name of a Minister (higher) for the monastery, the Father François Gomelin, who went on a journey of redemption in North Africa in 1700 in company of the Philémon Father of the Mound. They delivered 69 prisoners, were accepted with the return solemnly to the Court of France then with Audregnies which made them a triumph. Little time afterwards, they sets out again and repurchases thirty other Christian slaves whose Mr. Jean Martin still has the list.

the first lords of the house of Audregnies-Strépy-City carried: " mouths with five cotices of or"

After the death of Alard de Strépy, “the Abbey” developed. In 1389, for example, Guillaume de Harchies, Large Baillif de Hainaut, increased the monastic foundation where it will end up resting with his wife Jeanne de Jausse. It is thought that in 1507, the convent moved, leaving wood for the northern side of the place, then “large trieu” or “waressaix” whose population set up in commune and lord of Audregnies disputed the use. At the XVIIIe century, François Gomelin managed the monastery remarkably, undoubtedly renovating it. A stone struck with its initial still testifies some. One has two representations of this new convent: one is a gouache made at the request of the Duke of Charles de Croÿ by a Valenciennes-native painter, Adrien de Montigny, about 1690; the other is a military chart of Audregnies carried out for the Count of Ferraris in 1771-1778. These two documents, supplemented Rule, enable us to have an idea of what was the Trinity under the Old Mode.

The buildings are simple; monastic space is closed walls. It is divided into three parts: one in the East gathers the court, the barn and the stables which still remain. It opens on the place, it is the more secular part. The West, a small entry now disappeared gives access the fence: the principal building on three stages, of which the dormitory, then further the cloister with the vault and slate roof, without transept. Behind an orchard is. Undoubtedly let us note the existence of an infirmary in the part Is. It is known in addition that there were cellar-prisons, the only ones of the area, and an underground which most probably connected the monastery to the castle seigneurial.

With the length of the centuries, the “Trinity” had obviously an influence on the village. Admittedly, one sees it on a current level, the Abbey did not polarize the village around it. It on the other hand provided work to inhabitants, helped and helped the villagers, exempted the sacraments in its small church and especially introduced and developed the worship of Roch saint with Audregnies, worship which gave place to many festivities and processions until the years 1980. Indeed, the time was with the plagues and Roch, pestiferous itself, was considered to cure and protect from the disease. In 1636, Trinitaires of Douai make gift of the “worthy chief” of the Saint to their brothers of Audregnies. Two bones of cranium are thus sealed in a wood reliquary now preserved in the parish church. It was carried in procession by the monks through the streets from the conventual vault and this, in 1783.

In 1783, Joseph II, emperor of Austria and sovereign of our areas, issued the suppression of a series of religious houses. It then raised the question of the utility of the convents of Trinitaires in Belgium. It was answered him that in Cruelty, there were few Flemish prisoners and that, when they were repurchased, one always did not have recourse to Trinitaires. This answer hastened their suppression. The Patte clerk was in charge of the liquidation of the house of Audregnies where any more but 7 fathers did not live besides. Thus the images and ornaments of church were given to the parishes of the diocese, including two tables with the church of Baisieux (Belgium), and the remainder was sold. The church and the commun runs were destroyed. One raised in the place the long current masonry, a farm which integrated the old saved barn. It is today property of Mister and Mrs Jean Martin-Bériot.

(This part is a summary extracted from: Jean-Bernard LENS, Foundation and misadventures of a medieval institution: the Trinity with Audregnies , U.C.L., Hist 12,1988-1989. One will find more information in Daniel DERECK, the convent of Trinitaires d' Audregnies , in the Annales of the Circle of History and Archeology of Saint-Ghislain , VII, 1995.)

External bonds

Official site of the commune of Quiévrain
History and Patrimoine

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