The main road, formerly known in Walloon as "le voye d'Auf," is undoubtedly the oldest road in the village. It connected Wavre (Auf) with Tienen via the old Roman road from Boulogne-sur-Mer to Cologne. See beauvechain.eu/documents/BaladeBovetche.pdf
A detailed explanation, according to an author, is provided in the other tip. But don't forget to enjoy the exceptional interplay of numerous converging paths and rather deep sunken lanes over a very small area. History was indeed made here, and many people have passed by over the centuries.
This peaceful crossroads was a very important crossroads during the Roman era and the Merovingian era. It is located on what appears to be two ancient Roman roads, that of Louvain-Namur and that of Tirlemont-Wavre.
Alongside these two ancient Roman roads there would have been 6 secondary roads in the town. But were these roads really part of Rome's communications network?
The local toponyms of the regions crossed which are characteristic of ancient roads, the ancient remains discovered along these routes and the geographical position of our villages seem to confirm this and archaeologists and historians seem to agree on the subject. Other written elements, later, also corroborate this thesis. Indeed, an archive document from the church of Tourinnes dating from 1356-1405 designates the two main roads under the name of tyge de Tirlemont and tyge de Haquedar (Haquedeau farm in Roux-Miroir). This is what the ancient Roman roads were called in the Middle Ages.
I now invite you to look at the photo (in the photos above) illustrating the layout of the ancient routes to better understand what follows.
The most important route is a diverticulum of the Roman road which linked Cologne to Boulogne-sur-Mer via Tongres which was then the first city in our regions. Locally this diverticulum crossing Tourinnes and Beauvechain linked Tongres via Tienen to the rich Roman villa of Basse-Wavre. This is the most important Roman villa discovered in our country. In local dialect this ancient road is called the “vonye d’Auf”.
Perpendicular to the Tirlemont-Wavre road, the ancient road, also called the royal road since the Middle Ages, linking Louvain to Namur, crosses the village of Tourinnes and crosses the Tirlemont-Wavre road in a mysterious place called by the youngest, the crossroads of the witches' creepers, our favorite place to play during our childhood and still that of our children and grandchildren. Our “entrenched camps” were at the top of these embankments and our fredaines were preparing there.
This place has been mysterious for a long time, it was long called “the Tomb”
The field overlooking this important crossroads was called the Puits field or Puce fields in 1679. Tiles from Roman buildings were discovered there.
At this strategic location it would not be surprising if a Roman camp was established or a post house with a watering hole. Later, the Franks would not have occupied the site by building one of these fortified camps called "Motte", the same name as the alley that leads there, "le rouale del Motte".
This crossroads, now peaceful and removed from the village, was undoubtedly in Roman and Frankish times, a very lively place, a place of meetings and sometimes confrontations no doubt.
With these two main roads, six other secondary ancient Roman roads connect Tienen to Wavre (2) and Louvain to Namur (4).
This information was recorded in two works written by a teacher, historian, musician, composer, passionate about his village: Joseph Schayes.
The works are entitled: The trails of History in Beauvechain and surrounding areas (Joseph Schayes, Editions historique Nauwelarts)
Tourinnes / Beauvechain enclave lands of the principality of Liège in Brabant (Joseph Schayes, Editions historique Beauvechain).
They no longer appear to be commercially available.
Translated by Google •
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