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History of the town hall buildings

The history of Yvoir goes right back to the Neolithic era when a flint workshop was set up on the Tricointe site.

The Airbois site was occupied during the Gallo-Roman period. This is where a researcher found the name of Yvoir, in the form of HORA (a Germanic term meaning boggy land) in the manuscripts of the prevostship of Poilvache, of which Yvoir was a fief.

From the 14th century onwards, Yvoir was the centre of a major iron industry. It had up to 12 forges, the first of which was known as "la forge d'Yvoir" and the second "la forge d'Aminthe". The pace of life in the region mirrored the cycles of prosperity and recession in the forges. They were closed down in 1866 on the death of the last ironsmith, and converted into mills and sawmills. At that time, locks were being built and charcoal was to be replaced by anthracite mining.

At a time when the iron industry was in decline, Alfred Dapsens, from Tournai, settled in Yvoir. He bought the assets of the old Ironsmiths and operated the sandstone quarries, which took on considerable importance, given the rare types of stone present in Belgium.

Since the latest merger of municipalities in 1976, Yvoir has become the administrative centre of the municipality, comprising 9 villages: Evrehailles, Houx, Godinne, Mont, Purnode, Dorinne, Durnal, Spontin and Yvoir.

The town hall, housing the administrative centre of the municipality, has a rich history.

This old farm from the Yvoir estate, sometimes known as "Cense de la Tour" or "cense féodale", with the Bocq running by to the south, was a dependency of the Prevostship of Poilvache in 1458, having been the property of the Courioules in the 14th century. It was annexed from the estate in 1582 to the profit of Louis de Corioule and in 1622 by a descendant of the latter, before passing successively through the hands of the ironsmith families of the Dumonts, Missons and Moreaus until the early 20th century. In 1900, it was purchased by the religious congregation of the Cénacle and converted into a convent; a large chapel was added to it.
Following the floods in 1926 which caused the nuns to suffer from respiratory diseases and created ensuing financial problems, the Cénacle nuns left Yvoir. The congregation known as the Scheut missionaries bought all the buildings and grounds in April 1927. The priests built a rest home there. They left Yvoir for a larger site in Jambes in 1933.
The same year, this property, then known as the "Château de Moreau", was bought by the municipality of Yvoir. A large number of buildings were destroyed in 1938, including the farm, part of the chapel, religious buildings and the northern third of the original quadrangle, etc.
Today, all the U-shaped buildings which open out onto the parish church (dating from 1763) have been refitted for the municipal departments.