Last modified: 2008-09-06 by ivan sache
Keywords: raeren | jug (yellow) | birds: 3 (red) | merlettes: 3 (red) | eynatten |
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![[Flag of Raeren]](../images/b/be-wlgra.gif)
Municipal flag of Raren - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 24 March 2007
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The municipality of Raeren (10,199 inhabitants on 1 January 2007, nearly half of them being German citizens; 7,421 ha), bordering Germany, is part of the German-speaking Community. The municipality of Raeren is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Raeren, Eynatten and Hauset.
Raeren was famous in the XVI-XVIIth centuries for sandstone pottery, a technique that had developped in Rhineland. In the second half of the XVIth century, the most famous artists of Raeren were Jan Emens and his disciple Balden Mennicken. Originally related to the the Cologne pottery by the use of brown glaze, the Raeren pottery individualized around 1585 when the potters used instead a new blue glaze. In the XVIIth century, the Raeren technique was exported to the German region of Westerwald. Progressively, the potters of Westerwald modified the Raeren traditional decoration and created their own style. In 1820, there were still 20 big ovens in Raeren, employing 130 workers.
Eynatten, a village crossed by the Eupen-Aachen road, has a small booth housing the Carrot Museum, "only visible from outside", on which I have unfortunately no more information. The donjon of Raaf recalls the
Wasserburg (castle protected by water) of Rave. Built in the XIVth
century, maybe earlier, the donjon was inhabited until the middle of
the XIXth century, when its roof was suppressed. The hamlet of
Lichtenbusch, the seat of the former Belgian-German customs post, is
split by the border.
The Eynatten family was once one of the most powerful lineages in the
region limited by the rivers Maas and Rhine. The lineage emerged in the
XIIIth century with Thibaud of Eynatten.
The Handball Club Eynatten (HC Eynatten), founded in 1972, won the
National Championship in 2000, 2001 and 2002, and the National Cup in
2000.
Hauset, a village known in 1266 as Hoisoit, also had pottery workshops in the XVIth century.
Sources:
Ivan Sache, 10 October 2007
The municipal flag of Raeren, as commnicated by the municipal administration, is white with the municipal coat of arms in the middle.
According to Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et germanophones, the arms of Raeren, De gueules à une cruche de Raeren d'or, au chef d'argent maçonné de sable chargé de trois merlettes de gueules rangées ("Gules a jug of Raeren or a chief argent masoned sable three merlettes gules in fess") were adopted by the Municipal Council on 8 November 1989 and 29 August 1991 and confirmed by the Executive of the German-speaking Community on 18 December 1991.
The jug recalls the famous Raeren pottery. The three merlettes come from the arms of the former municipality of Eynatten, adopted by the Municipal Council on 25 June 1954, confirmed by Royal Decree on 28 May 1956 and published in the Belgian municipal gazette on 5 August 1956, D'argent à la bande de gueules accompagnée de six merlettes du même rangées en orle - l'écu surmonté d'un heaume d'argent grillé, colleté et liseré d'or, doublé et attaché de gueules, taré de front, aux bourrelets et lambrequins d'argent et de gueules. Cimier: une merlette de l'écu entre deux proboscides coupées alternativement d'argent et de gueules ("Argent a bend gules cantonned by six merlettes of the same in orle [...]"). These are the arms of the family of Eynatten, In zilver een schuinbalk, vergezeld en rechts en links van drie zoomsgewijs geplaatste merletten, alles rood ("Argent a bend surrounded dexter and sinister by three merlettes, all gules") also used as the municipal arms and banner of arms by the municipality of Tinlot. The three merlettes can also represent the three former municipalities
merged to form Raeren.
Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 20 April 2008