The largest heraldry site on the net, with presently coats of arms on-line !

Belgische Gemeentewapens - Armories communales de Belgique Belgian Civic Heraldry

OVERIJSE

Province : Vlaams Brabant

Origin/meaning :

The arms were granted in 1818 and confirmed on January 30, 1840.
The oldest seal of the council of IJsse dates from the 14^th century and shows a bishop, sun and crescent. The bishop is likely St. Martin, the patron saint of the village. In later seals the patron saint was shown as a knight cutting his cloak for the beggar. Below the saint was a small shield with a bend and in the chief three fleur-de-lis and in the base a lion. The fleur-de-lis are derived from the family Beers, Lords of IJsse, who descended from the Lords of Aarschot. The arms of Aarschot show a single fleur-de-lis. The lion is the lion of Brabant, to which the area belonged.
In the present arms the bend is replaced by a bar, but otherwise the composition has not changed. The colours are the colours of the Netherlands. As the council did not mention the colours of the arms in the early 19^th century, the Dutch College of arms granted all arms in gold and blue. After the independence of Belgium in 1830 the arms were confirmed, but the colours were not changed.
The historical colours were a blue shield with a golden saint, and a small red shield with a silver bend. Both the flaur-de-lis and the lion were silver.

Literature : Servais, 1955; information provided by the Overijse council.

Home © Ralf Hartemink 1996, ->

See also my other sites Food-Info.net and Food Dictionary