Last modified: 2021-03-28 by ivan sache
Keywords: marange-silvange |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
![[Flag]](../images/f/fr-57-ms.gif)
Flag of Marange-Silvange - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 29 September 2020
See also:
The municipality of Marange-Silvange (6,319 inhabitants in 2018; 1,524 ha; municipal website) is located 20 km north-west of Metz. The municipality was established in 1809 as the merger of the villages of Marange and Silvange.
Marange was established around a church dedicated to St. Clement, dating back at least to the 10th century, probably by winegrowers who planted grapevines on the hillslopes. In the Middle Ages, Marange was the southernmost village of the Duchy of Luxembourg, located on the borders with the Duchy of Bar-Lorraine and the Bishopric of Metz. The village was used as a logistic base by soldiers, known as Marangeois, who attacked merchants traveling in the valley of Moselle and looted the neighboring villages. Accordingly, the village was burned down as a reprisal, in 1475 by the Duke of Lorraine, in 1514 by Robert de la Marck, and in 1521 and 1542 by the French.
On 2 October 1636, fed up by the Spanish raids that threatened Metz, the King of France sent more than 1,000 men equipped with two cannons against Marange; after the surrender of the village, its fortifications were suppressed. The incorporation of the Provostship of Thionville to France by the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 moved the border northwards and peace was re-established.
Silvange was established as a forest hamlet depending of Rombas. Nearly suppressed during the Thirty Years' War, Silvange was elevated to an autonomous municipality after the French Revolution.
Ternel emerged as a small hamlet established around a mill. The inauguration of an iron mine in 1863, replaced by a bigger one in 1882 and closed in 1931, required the building of a miner's estate.
Marange-Silvange became in the beginning of the 20th century a dormitory town for the steel factory established in Hagondange in the valley of Moselle. The Single's Home housed up to 400 workers.
Olivier Touzeau & Ivan Sache, 3 October 2020
The flag of Marange-Silvange (photo, photo) is white with with the municipal coat of arms, "Azure a sword argent in pale point downwards pomelled or superimposed by a fess argent three scallops gules", at lower hoist and the municipal logo (without text) at upper fly.
The three red scallops are taken from the arms of the Travault family, probably recalling that a member of the lineage once went on a pilgrimage to Santiago.
Lords of Marange, the Travault were among the "paraiges", the old burgher's families that formed the patrician oligarchy that ruled the town of Metz.
[Municipal website]
The town's emblem, simple and spontaneous, forms the signature of a place and claims to be the representation of:
- a quality site belonging to the Moselle slopes, hilly, natural and greening;
- the dynamism and ambition of a town that moves ahead, materialized by the three birds that form the point of an arrow pointing upwards. The three birds are also a wink to the alerions, which are the symbols of Region Lorraine;
- a strong willingness to emphasize a sole and unique geographical area, highlighting the definitive union of two entities with different names, whose Latin origin, "mare" (the sea) and "silva" (the forest) is rendered by the colors used.;
- the connection of the town to life quality, emphasized by the graphism used for the "M" and the "S", which suggest the numerous trails and paths meandering on the hillslopes;
- the expression of an increase aspiration to live together emphasized by the use of very "Mediterranean" tones to create a deliberate break with the region's climatic context.
[Municipal website]
Olivier Touzeau & Ivan Sache, 3 October 2020