Last modified: 2009-12-11 by ivan sache
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The district of Borgerhout (41,779 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 393 ha) was formed in 1983 when the former municipality of Borgerhout was merged into the municipality of Antwerp.
Borgerhout was mentioned, as Borgerholt, in an act of the Duke of Brabant signed in 1214. For centuries the westernmost part of Deurne, on the border of Greater Antwerp, Borgerhout became an independent municipality on 13 June 1836. The village grew up along the Ayendyck, the water dam once linking Antwerp to Deurne (today the Turnhout Road). The place was rich in oaks used for the building of the water foundations of the borg (fortified town) of Antwerp, and therefore named the borg's wood (borger hout). Another etymology says that the burghers (borgers) from Deurne were allowed to pick wood (holt, today, hout) on a territory belonging to the Markgrave of Antwerp or to the Duke of Brabant.
Borgerhout became a connection point between the trade center of
Antwerp and the Kempen hinterland and grew quickly, from some 2,000
inhabitants in 1824 to more than 4,000 ten years later.
In 1830, the first municipal election in Belgium after the revolution
took place in Deurne-Borgerhout, with the majority of the voters
coming from Borgerhout and electing J. Huybrechts as the Mayor. The
revamping of the ruined Reuzenhuis of Borgerhout as the town hall
increased the political quarrel between Borgerhout and Deurne, which
eventually split.
Source: District website
Ivan Sache & Jan Mertens, 3 October 2008
According to the Gazet van Antwerpen, 12 September 2008, the district of Borgerhout has launched a competition for a new official flag. Everybody can contest. White, red and green are the mandatory colours; the rest of the design is left to the designers' creativity. The proposals should be sent to the district hall before 20 October 2008.
Ivan Sache, 21 October 2008
A local blog cites the District Secretary, Mr Nieuwinckel, on the current
state of affairs (posted 29 Aug 2009).
End of last year a winner was selected; among 30 proposals, that of Marc Van de
Cruys was sent on to the Minister then in charge, Dirk Van Mechelen. The
official document showing arms and flag was prepared and signed but not sent
back as the Minister, who has since stepped down, preferred handing over this
and similar documents simultaneously once all districts would have sent in their
designs.
Marc Van de Cruys is well known as the editor of the heraldry journal Heraldicum Disputationes and as the author, co-author and publisher of many books and
brochures on the subject.
The flag proposal was posted by Claudia van den Boomen on 20 October 2008 on the Primastyleblog.
The flag is swallow-tailed, red with a large white rectangle in the centre separating a narrow vertically divided white-and-red panel (dancetty, of seven white points) from a larger section of the fly; in the rectangle, above and below bordered by vertical white and red stripes, appears a green generic tree placed above a green ground (dancetty separation). If this means anything at all, said
vertical stripes are sixteen white and fifteen red in number, each.
Jan Mertens, 1 September 2009
The flag of the former municipality of Borgerhout, still hoisted on the town hall of Antwerp, is red with three white chevrons. The colours of the flag are taken from the municipal arms.
The arms of Borgerhout are "Gules three chevrons argent an escutcheon of the same a tree vert." According to Servais [svm55], the arms were granted by Royal Decree on 28 January 1843. After the split of the municipality of Deurne-Borgerhout, the new municipal council of Borgerhout applied for the arms of the former municipality. The tree on the arms of Borgerhout is therefore not canting for hout (wood) in the name of the municipality, since it was "inherited" form the arms of Deurne.
Source: District website
Ivan Sache & Jan Mertens, 3 October 2008
![[Flag of KBKC]](../images/b/be@kgkc.gif)
KBKC supporters' flag - Image by Ivan Sache, 11 May 2009
The Borgerhout korfball club's supporters display vertically a flag reproducing the players' jersey, that is white with three horizontal red stripes.
Ivan Sache, 12 May 2009