The Carnival of La Louvière : a Gille. Emblematic figure from the Centre region, the Gille is first of all the real leader of and old tradition and a preserved folklore ("Gilles de Bouvy" society, Photo CRS)
The Carnival of La Louvière : a Gille. Emblematic figure from the Centre region, the Gille is first of all the real leader of and old tradition and a preserved folklore ("Gilles de Bouvy" society, Photo CRS)
La Louvière nowadays presents the face of a commercial and industrial city turned towards the future. With its 80.000 inhabitants, it is the capital of the Centre region, a land of folklore, heritage and traditions, nestling between Mons and Charleroi, 31 miles south of Brussels.
La Louvière inherited of an important industrial and mining past and now at the time of the necessary economical reconversion, the city and the whole region find a new breath by energising performing industrial parks, the high technology field as well as by creating new interests poles such as tourism and culture.
The strong industrial identity of La Louvière and its recent community foundation, dating from 1869, should not let one forget that the city site is old. Indeed, the history of La Louvière is closely linked to one of the present communities of its district : Saint-Vaast, which got its name from the bishop who evangelised the banks of the river Haine around the year 500. In 1157, a lord from Saint-Vaast is for the first time mentioned because he donated some of his possessions to the Aulne Abbey (Abbaye d'Aulne).
Like almost everywhere in the Province of Hainaut, the local populations were, with the passing centuries, living off agriculture and coal. The creation of exploitation companies, such as the "Société du Charbonnage de La Louvière" (Coal company of La Louvière) in 1735, contributed to an expansion that the industrial revolution was even going to amplify. The extraction processes then became mechanised while one was digging deeper and deeper. Galleries and mine shafts multiply in the subsoil, up to the point that they provoked the weakening and the demolition of the first church of the city.
La Louvière, 1851. The Sainte-Barbe coal mine, at "la Paix" which is along with
the Saint-Hubert pit, the first installations of coke furnaces in the Centre district (Plate of Fernand Liénaux)
Two other activities also contributed to the local prosperity : the earthenware factory and the iron and steel metallurgy. Along with the coal mines, they drained emigrants from all backgrounds. Nevertheless, although work was arduous, one could also enjoy oneself and it is within that context that the Carnival of La Louvière genesis took place around the year 1850.
For more information about the city of La Louvière, may we invite you to discover its website.
Poster of the Carnival in 1906. Very soon, the richness of the inheritage of the Laetare folklore imposed itself to the local councillors along with the necessity of concerted promoting of the young La Louvière image (Council Archives).
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