Paths of Etalle

At random of the readings

Randomly reading various documents, I got into the game of transcribing some of them on a word processor to facilitate their use (search, copy-paste, ...).

Perhaps it is not useless to benefit the users of this site. To download them, just click on the image.

These documents mainly concern my village, Villers-sur-Semois, but not exclusively.
In order to respect copyright, only old works and articles are mentioned.

Sorry for people who do not speak french, all these documents are written in the language of Voltaire ...

"Histoire de Villers-sur-Semois et de ses anciennes dépendances" by the Abbot N-J Lenoir

"History of Villers-sur-Semois and its old outbuildings"

Father Nicolas Lenoir was parish priest in Gérouville, then in Habay-la-Vieille at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.
Passionate and fascinating historian, he wrote several books on the Gaume villages. This one was written in 1905 and concerns the parish of Villers-sur-Semois and its "annexes", Orsinfaing, Houdemont, Rulles, Habay-la-Vieille, ...

"Histoire de la Prévôté d'Etalle et de la Seigneurie de Sainte-Marie" by the Abbot N-J Lenoir

"History of the Etalle Provostship and of the Sainte-Marie Seigneury"

Father Lenoir also wrote a book on Etalle and Sainte-Marie in 1909. This one describes not only the parishes, but also their status as seigneury and provost.

"Histoire de la Gaume, lexiques et commentaires à propos des ouvrages de N.J. Lenoir" by Jacques Nicolas

"History of Gaume, lexicons and comments on the works of N.J. Lenoir"

As I had had some difficulty in understanding certain terms used in these works, or in accurately reproducing episodes in the history of our regions in a more general context, I took the liberty of writing a sort of glossary as well as a few historical reminders.
Not being a historian, this text has no pretensions and certainly contains several errors or inaccuracies. You just have to think of it as a collection of personal comments.

"Rulles-Marbehan et les alentours au cours du temps" by Fernand Doucet

"Rulles-Marbehan and the surrounding area over time"

This work, published by the Musée Gaumais in 1969, tells the story of Rulles and in particular the quarrels between his parishioners and the priests of Villers-sur-Semois.
An interesting second part is devoted to the biography of Abbot Lenoir, "historian of Gaume".

"Un cimetière du milieu du Ier siècle à Chantemelle" by H. Roosens

"A mid-1st century cemetery in Chantemelle"

This article, which appeared in "Le Pays Gaumais" in 1954, briefly describes the excavations relating to the Gallo-Roman necropolis, near the place called "Les Laveux", south of Chantemelle.
Only the beginning has been transcribed. The following constitutes a detailed description of all the objects discovered on the site.

"L'église Saint-Martin de Villers-sur-Semois" by Jacques Nicolas

"The Saint-Martin church in Villers-sur-Semois"

This is a text that I wrote at the end of 2018, beginning of 2019, following my many readings concerning the church in my village.
It describes its history, its architecture and its content, in particular, the famous "Ara Romana".

"Les points d'intérêt dans la commune d'Etalle" by Jacques Nicolas

"Points of interest in the municipality of Etalle"

This inventory was carried out on the basis of numerous documents describing, sometimes in detail, the various points of interest of the commune of Etalle. The inventory does not at all pretend to duplicate or even replace other works: on the contrary, it wants to be a gateway to more detailed documentation for the curious than the subject fascinates.

Each point of interest has been briefly described, without going into too much detail.

The originalities of this work are, on the one hand, that it tries to be as exhaustive as possible, without of course claiming to have forgotten nothing.
Then, it situates the events, heritage or history of our region in terms of places, identified by their precise coordinates and plotted on a current map.

"Les chemins et sentiers de la commune d'Etalle" by Jacques Nicolas

"The paths and trails of the municipality of Etalle"

"The atlas of local roads and paths" is a plan of the local roads.
It recognizes the rights of way acquired by the public on local trails and paths and guarantees their protection.
It was decided by Belgium in 1841 and completed in 1843 to establish or confirm the imprescriptible right of way as long as these paths and trails are used for public use.

This document is an inventory of all the paths and trails in the current municipality of Etalle listed on this atlas, identifying those that still exist, those that have disappeared, those that deserve rehabilitation.

Each path or trail is marked on a current map and the document mentions whether it is present on cadastral maps or on old maps (Ferraris or Vander Maelen).

"Henri Henriquez, maître des forges et fermier général (1672-1730)" by Marcel Bourguignon

"Henri Henriquez, master of the forges and general farmer (1672-1730)"

This text, written by Marcel Bourguignon, appeared in the Annals of the Archaeological Institute of Luxembourg in 1969.
It tells the story of Henri Henriquez, an important figure around 1700 in our region.

"Les Fontaines de la Province de Luxembourg." by Georges Matagne

"The Fountains of the Province of Luxembourg."

This very complete work on the fountains and washhouses of the province was written by Georges Matagne and published in the Annals of the Archaeological Institute of Luxembourg in 1974.
This is the scanned version of the book, available on the "Neptun" site of the University of Namur (see the section reserved for "links").