General presentation of the municipality

Location

Origin

The name of the municipality comes from an affluent of the Seine which runs in a valley, the Woluwe, and Woluwe finds its etymology in the Germanic words "wele", "woel" or "wale" (source or fountain) and "euw", "eeu" or "eawe" (water). Woluwe-Saint-Pierre was successively called: Wolewe (1154), Obwolewa (1164), Welewe (1270); Woluwe Santi Cetri (1409) and St. Peters Woluwe (1435).

Communal armorial bearings

"Of sable to the silver head, charged with three sable birds, beaked and limbed of mouth, steady.
The escutcheon summoned of a crown with five florets and supported by two silver greyhounds, collared of mouths buckled of gold ". The "sigillium scabinorum domini of Crainhem and Woluwe", whose waxe print is at the Cabinet of the medals of the Royal Library, shows an oval escutcheon with the weapons of Hinnisdael which had many goods in the locality from XVIIth to the XIXth century.

History

We had to wait until 1117 and the charter of the "cartulaire" of Forest to see, for the first time, the name of "Wolewe". Woluwe-Saint-Pierre finds its origin in a significant hamlet made up of vast farms which remained exploited during nearly seven centuries by the abbey of Park (close to Leuven). We don't know if our municipality was, at the beginning of its existence, managed by one or more lords of the manor; but we are sure that the abbey played an essential role there.

Round 1561, when there were rumblings of revolution against Spain, it became dangerous, the cloisters were devastated, the heretics held their meetings in the wood in order to raise the country against Philippe II. The bells of the Saint-Pierre church then were hidden and thus withdrawn from the requisition; it is only in 1585 that they founded their place. Poverty and famine prevailed then and ended only with the government of Albert and Isabelle. Those decided to improve, in 1617, the access roads between Brussels and Tervueren and built a roadway, known under the name of "street of the Duke".

A little more than two centuries later, in 1795, when the French occupation started, the alarm bell goes back to sound, because the revolt thunders against the laws in force. It is one period of great insecurity not only for the campaigns, but also for the forests. Many armed bands crossed the wood, which will not be saved either by the inhabitants who, pushed by the inoccupation and poverty, braconnent and decimate thus most of fauna. Stags, deer, roe-deers and wild boars disappeared thus. Because heating coal and wood were rare and expensive, we started to exploit the peat bogs of the Valley of the Woluwe, those peat bogs were exploited till 1840. Because of the law of March 18th, 1800, the first Consul Napoleon Bonaparte removed the town councils of canton and restored the autonomy of the municipality. During this French period, the municipality, made up of several hamlets and localities, had, like the others, its mayor, his mayor-assistant and his town council. The first mayor of our municipality, Marc Fabry, and its assistant, Philippe Theunis, were sworn in on May 26, 1800.

The first municipal council took place on January 13th, 1819. At that time the mayor was Henri Van Keerbergen.

At that time, poverty had disappeared because of the new commercial tradings with the rest of the world. In 1830 when the temporary Belgian Governement started it immediately wanted new municipal council. The deputy mayors who were chosen among the upper middle class and according to a complicated system, had to be elected by direct election and paid by the citizens after 1830. This new council built the first public school in the municipality, which was also used as a city hall but was demolished in 1958 because a new city hall had been built ( Avenue Charles Thielemans 2). The new council also had to fight has Stockel will of indipendence.

When Léopold II became the king, the evolution of our municipality was kind of slow but the agriculture was still very important.

In 1880, the municipal coucil was asked to build a railroad going from Leopold neibourhood to Tervueren, the municipality was divided in two different areas and the municipality had two stations. We stopped using this railroad in 1958 and the bridge crossing the Avenue de Tervueren was demolished in 1972.

In 1897, for the International Exposition of the Cinquantenaire, Léopold II built the Avenue de Tervueren, a huge road surrounded by trees going from the Cinquantenaire till the Catsel of Tervueren. In order to accomodate all the visitors, he built a tramway. A lot of private mansions were built by famous architects along this road, for example the Palais Stoclet.

The municipality becomes more and more important and isn't a rural municipality like it used to be.

Two years later, in 1899, the architect Lainé was asked by Léopold II to design a big park in the Valley of the Woluwe. In 1906, a racecourse was built in Stockel. This racecourse became really famous because of races but also because of big aerial events, famous pilots were attending those events. The racecourse was demolished in 1958, except for the stand. A leisure centre was built there in 1975.

After World War I, the municipality got more and more important. In 1921, the Agency for cheap houses (la Société locale d'Habitations à bon Marché) was created. With the financial help of the municipality, the agency built the cité-jardin by the wood and known as "Cité de Joli-Bois". The partnership between the municipality and several real estates helped building several roads.

At the end of World War II, the urbanization was growing. The neighbourhood of Joli-Bois was created but also the neighbourhood of Stockel and the neigbourhood of Europe. The city hall was becoming more and more important so a new city hall was built. The new leisure center, the home Roi Baudoin, several community centres and the Cité de l'Amitié.

Since the city was getting more and more important, public transportation to Woluwe-Saint-Lambert had to be created and also the ring road of Brussels. The extension of the line of the tramway 39 was just created but also the Place Dumon and the last subway station of the line 1B, opened in 1988.

Geography

• Area : 885 ha
  Highest point : 110 m (Quatre Bras and Trois Couleurs)
  Lowest : 44 m (Boulevard de la Woluwe)
• Climate: the climate is fresh and humid with weak thermal variations. In Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, the annual average temperature is 10°C. The average temperature for January is at 2,2°C and for July at 17,8°C. Annual average precipitations for Brussels are 699 mm.
• Pedology: Woluwe-Saint-Pierre has a ground formed of sand, silt and clay.
• Natural vegetation: our municipality has 178 ha of public parks on a global surface of 885 ha. Some 8700 trees of alignment are also counted for a total of 106 km roadway systems. Among these spaces, there are the Parmentier park, the park of the Woluwe and the forest of Soignes.
• Rivers: we can count three rivers on the municipality, resulting from a ground water located in the basement: the Kersbeek, that flows into the Leybeek, and the Vloedgroebbe. As for the Woluwe, which crosses Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, it takes its source in Boitsfort. These rivers, except for the Woluwe, have nowadays almost disappeared from the landscape.
• Habitat: the municipality counts only two zones of masonries: an absolute residential zone which includes only isolated villas, or grouped by two or three, and of beautiful large luxurious houses; and a mixed zone which includes dwellings joined between gables and small industry or commercial firms. There are no agricultural zones anymore and it is out of the question to see emerging industrial parks.
• Routes : three regional roads, with much traffic, cross the municipality: the "avenue de Tervueren", the boulevards "Brand Withlock" and "Saint-Michel" and the "boulevard du Souverain" and "boulevard de la Woluwe". The roadway system currently includes 106 km, including 11 km of regional roadway systems.

Economy

• Primary sector :(agriculture, fishing): very common till 1918, due to the agriculture, it has completely disappeared today.
• Secondary industry : except for some water mills along the Woluwe, that do not exist anymore, Woluwe-Saint-Pierre never had industries. The commercial and industrial activities are limited to the independent ones and SME.
• Tertiary sector : (trade, offices, restaurants, ...) : in full expansion, since the primary and secondary sectors are completely non-existent today.

Population

Source : INS, vital statistics.

Visit of the City Hall

In spite of an obvious need for a city hall, it was carried out only after many projects were given up.

They started building it in 1960, with the plans of Messrs W. Vermeiren and Nicaise, that is to say eleven years after the Municipal authorities had launched a contest of architecture.

The masonry was designed in style brabançon on a ground of 76 ares

You can ask for a guided tour of the city hall by downloading the form available on this site (in French) :

Visit of the City Hall.doc or Visit of the City Hall.pdf

Green spaces

• Woluwe Park

This park has been classified on November 8th, 1972.

Before 1868 its area consisted of agricultural terrains with humid grounds and a forest area of more than 15 hectares owned by the Civil Hospices of Brussels.

• In 1883, the land owner François MELLAERTS bought some of the terrains.
• In 1897, Edmond PARMENTIER bought some more terrains from the Hospices and some parcels from private individuals, which allowed him to arrange an exchange, based on a convention (1898), with Monsieur MELLAERTS. The State later took charge of creating the Woluwe Park from the terrains that were bought by PARMENTIER.

Having a surface area of more than 71 hectares, the park is provided with water by the Woluwe and its tributaries.

The park's landscape was conceived in English style by the French landscape architect LAINE. His successor, Louis VAN der SWAELMEN, developped the idea of a park with a landscape in English style, by respecting an essential law: the natural habitat of the plants. Completed in 1906, the park is a true arboretum containing rare species, such as the Japanese sophora (Sophora japonica), the Chinese cedrela (Cedrela sinensis), the Japanese zelkowa, the Colorado fir ...

The animal life of the park consists of several kinds of birds, such as amongst others: ducks, swans, gulls, grey herons, Egyptian gulls ...

• The Mellaerts Ponds

The history of the Mellaerts ponds is closely linked to the construction of the Avenue de Tervueren (1895), to the development of the Woluwe park (1896) and to the construction of the Boulevard du Souverain, a bit later (1902).

In 1883, François Mellaerts and his wife Antoinette Vandenmoortel buy a collection of terrains located in the valley of the Woluwe during a public sale. In 1898, the Mellaerts couple, "salesmen living in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre", exchange some terrains with Edmond Parmentier, the contractor who had been appointed to construct the Avenue de Tervueren. More concretely, Parmentier needed the terrains, necessary for the development of the Woluwe Park and the modification of the (Woluwe) river's bed. In this context, the Mellaerts couple accepted to dispose of nearly 4 ha of terrains consisting of "dikes, ponds, grounds and buildings".

During the 1880s, François Mellaerts ordered the digging of ponds and the construction of a house with outbuildings.

It was arranged with Edmond Parmentier that the house would be pulled down, once a new one (still here today) would be constructed "at a distance of twelve meters from the new roadway" (the Boulevard du Souverain).

The notarized deed contained some interesting details: for example, the Mellaerts couple (and their successors) commited themselves to let "the ponds remain in perpetuity; to never build along the new avenue de Tervueren and to never erect a building in this region, nor to plant anything that could block the view on the ponds or that could inhibit the view from any of the view points to be established at this location".

Furthermore, it was stipulated that bathing in the ponds was prohibited ! In return, the State committed itself to ensure the maintenance of the ponds and the terrains, which the Mellaerts family would make publicly accessible by opening a restaurant and a boating establishment.

In 1902, the construction of the boulevard du Souverain began, which lead to the separation of the Mellaerts ponds from the Woluwe park.

With its two ponds, the park covers an area of 8 hectares and is ment for leisure activities: there are still people who go (pedalo) boating on the water; a minigolf course has been constructed near the restaurant.

The ponds have been classified since November 18th, 1976, and are inhabited by a considerable amount of different bird species: amongst others the Eurasian coot, the grey heron and the Egyptian goose, ... nest in this area.

Amongst the tree species one can find the Japanese cherry tree (Prunus serrulata cv.Gioiko), the silver maple (Acer saccharinum), the Norway maple (Acer platanoides cv. Globosum), the weeping beech (Fagus sylvatica cv. Pendula), the conker tree (Aesculus hippocastenum).

• The Parmentier Park

The whole park has an area of 13 hectares, was originally conceived in the English style and has been classified since December 7th, 1981.

Situated at the corner of the Avenue Parmentier and the Avenue des Orangers, this former property of Edmond Parmentier was bought by the Belgian State in 1919, and has been the location for a revalidation centre for war invalids (1914-1918) and a military hospital with workshops for professional training and housing up until 1925. From 1930 onwards, this estate was put to the disposal of the abbot FROIDURE and it is still occupied by the "Stations de Plein Air" today. In the park, one can find interesting species of trees: red oak (Quercus rubra), giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), ....

• Monsanto Park

The park used to be a property of the order of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary. In 1973, the religious community sold a parcel near their convent between the avenue de Tervueren and the rue François Gay to the municipality. The municipality passed it on to the company MONSANTO, (located at n° 270) under the condition that they would open the lower part of the terrain for the public. This park has a surface area of 75 ares and is the habitat of Northern Red Oaks (Quercus rubra), and European beeches (Fagus sylvatica).... The park is managed by the municipality.

Administrative chart and organization (in French)