Page "Grimbergen" Paragraph 3

In the 12th century the name of the hamlet was Grentberghis, which came from the Old Dutch Grientbergen, meaning mounds of coarse sand.

A community of Augustinian monks had already tried to settle here a century earlier during the reign of Godfrey III, Duke of Lower Lorraine, but it is only in the early 12th century that their religious community prospered.

Under the leadership of Norbert of Xanten, the Norbertine monks built the Grimbergen Abbey here in 1128.

A few years later, the animosity between the powerful Grimbergen family and their then infant overlord Godfrey III of Leuven precipitated the Wars of Grimbergen.

The unrest caused the destruction of the local castle by the Duke of Brabant, the move of the ruling Grimbergen lord to nearby Ninove, and the parceling of his territory.

The city's coat of arms dates from that period.