Engis

Engis (in Walloon Indji ) is a common French-speaking of Belgium located in Walloon region in the Province of Liege (administrative district of Huy).

It gathers since 1977 the sections of Engis, Clermont-under-Huy, Hermalle-under-Huy and part of Ombret-Rawsa.

It counted a population of 5.662 inhabitants at January 1st 2004.

History

the first known traces of human occupation of the area are related to the Homme of Néandertal.

This one should besides have been called l'" Man of Engis" since the discovery of Philippe-Charles Schmerling date of 1830, that of the Man of Néandertal going back to 1856, and that of the Man of Spy of 1886. In 1830, professor Schmerling discovered in a cave (Right Bank of the small valley of Awirs), flints and human bones of which some were old 70.000 years. Among three discovered human craniums, two are of Neolithic age but the cranium of Engis was identified thereafter like that of a young person Homo neanderthalensis . Vestiges of skeletons of animals and tools were also discovered in this site.

has Hermalle-under-Huy same, of the excavations revealed the presence of the man to the locality " Thiers of Olne" since the Paleolithic means; axes and flints cut there were found.

Towards 300-600 av. J-C, the countryside of Managed by Celts - was to be occupied what let suppose the ceramics fragments found in 2003 at the time of preventive surveys carried out by the Walloon region in the park of industrial activities. In second half of the 2nd century and at the beginning of the 3rd century, one finds an establishment of Gallo-Roman tile makers there. The Roman occupation (traces of a vicus belgo-Roman in Ombret) precedes the establishment by Mérovingiens with an aristocratic family in Thiers d' Olne, hill isolated which dominates the Meuse near the ford and of the Roman bridge. Ideal position by the exploitation of the alluvial plain downstream, the harvest of the products of the forest bordering the plate condruzien and controls it navigation on the Meuse with possibility of perceiving a tonlieu of it (tax). The habitat is modest, out of stones, wood, cob, thatch, surrounded by an enclosure in the center of which the mausoleum is where 2 sarcophagi were found, the only ones of about thirty tombs. The presence of Christian reasons on one of the sarcophagi lets think that a part at least of the population was christianized - for memory, VIIe S. is named the " century of the saints". Other burials were highlighted apart from the palisaded enclosure. In second half of the 8th century, the mausoleum is replaced by a Christian vault built with a particular care: stone walls covered with painted coatings and stained glass. The habitat extends. This aristocratic complex is the object of an important transformation in the current of the 9th century. It then includes/understands a church and a vast Carolingian building seigneurial with domus, camerae, porches, storeroom, cattle shed or stable, etc, established with a score of meters of distance from the church, connected to it by a wall limiting an interior court. This domanial center had to be abandoned - without traces of the violent destruction - around the year millet with the profit of an other site height, the rock of Engihoul (with Clermont-under-Huy).

Hermalle-under-Huy was the seat of the one of the oldest seigniories of the valley of the Meuse concerned with a feudal court and censale as of the Middle Ages and until the 18th century; the history of the borough thus merges with that of its castle and its lords…

The current configuration of the village takes shape at the 17th century with covered slate buildings, whose framings (bays), chainings and bases are often out of limestone of Meuse, the external walls being made out of bricks starting from clay and of the silt regional, the interior walls in half-timbering and bricks.

Engis is a very industrial commune on left bank of the Meuse: manufacture of phosphoric manures; powerplant; zinc, plaster and electrodes with graphite.

Since January 1st, 1977, its territory was modified by the fusion of the communes decided by the Belgian government: Engis thus includes most of the old commune of Hermalle-under-Huy (the part located on left bank of the Meuse passed to the commune of Saint-Georges-on-Meuse), the old commune of Clermont-under-Huy and part of that of Ehein. The part of the new entity located on Right Bank of the Meuse constitutes an rural area and semi-rural patrimonial and landscape interest.

Air pollution

Engis is also known to be one of the most polluted cities of Belgium. http://mrw.wallonie.be/dgrne/rapports/dpa/2004/zones/zones156.html

The catastrophe of 1930

At the beginning of December 1930, Belgium was covered with a thick fog. The valley of the Meuse to the slopes precipice was touched by an inversion of temperature between Huy and Seraing. To the third day, the inhabitants presented respiratory disorders. Death struck an about sixty people, old or those already reached of chronic affections of the heart or lungs. A few thousands of people presented respiratory disorders (cough, breathlessness). One thinks, after serious studies, that a mixture of sulfur oxides (oscillating SO2 rate between 30 and 100 mg/m ³) and other gases irritating, whose action was worsened by the presence of aerosols, were responsible, no anomaly not having been detected in the pollution emission by the factories of the valley.

Remarkable monuments and sites

Engis

Tchafornis
the Spanish House
mineralogical Museum Jean-Marie Souplet

Clermont-under-Huy

Castle-firm of Attines (18th century), private field.
Castle of Halledet (19th century), private field.
Castle of Magnery (18th century)

Hermalle-under-Huy

Castle of Hermalle (turn of the 12th century - other parts of the buildings of the 17th century and 18th century, style mosan) and Firm castrale of 1742, contiguous with the castle
Native house of Jean-Gille Jacobs, Master-mason of the 18th century (building classified, worth visiting at the Days of the Inheritance - 2nd weekend of September -, presenting murals, representing the building trades, single in Europe)
House of Héna - old dependence of the Abbey of Flône - (classified building)
Supposed Cassal (17th century)
Firm of Hottine (1715 - old dependence of the Abbey of Flône)
Library and museum of Greediness - Museum: history curious about the kitchen and the food about Antiquity at our days, in the Farm castrale; Library: most important of Belgium with 17.000 books of gastronomy and kitchen, one of 20 larger of Europe - accessible on go
Musée Postmaster addresses (anecdotic history of the writing and the post office - in the Farm castrale)

Events

Gone weekly of books of occasion to the Farm castrale
In the neighborhoods of on July 21st, celebrates annual Great Forgiveness of Hermalle

Twinning

External bonds

the official site http://www.engis.be
the site of the Tourist office of Hermalle-under-Huy http://www.hermalle-sous-huy.be
the site of the Farm castrale, of its museums and the Library of Greediness: http://www.gastronomica.be

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