User:Anastaciapaidherdues/Mohiville

Mohiville (in Walloon, Mohivîye) is a section of the Belgian commune of Hamois, which is located in the Walloon Region, in the province of Namur.

It was an independent commune until the communes merged in 1977.

The beautiful church of Saint Pierre was built in 1782 by the Marquis Albert-François de Maillen, whose family is now extinct. Many villagers helped in building the church by transporting stones. Because they did not want the name ‘de Maillen’ to disappear, the family of the Counts d’Aspremont-Lynden added it to their own name, which means they are now called “Counts d’Aspremont-Lynden de Maillen”. Some members of the family are still living in a castle outside the main village area. Three towers of the castle date from the 15th and 16th centuries. There are several chapels in the village and its surroundings.

From the cemetery, which is only a stone’s throw from the primary school, you can see the little village of Scy and its church of Saint Martin.

Before 1229, Mohiville was called Moeville ; in 1314 it was Mohierville. The name Mohiville actually refers to a humid rural field (it comes from the Walloon mouhi, meaning “rotten”).

Until 1930, Mohiville and Scoville formed a single rural commune, away from public routes. It was only in the thirties that road signs appeared at the entrance of the village. From this time, two private bus lines passed through Mohiville: the line Havelange – Ciney and the line Ocquier – Ciney. For long, the villagers lived in Mohiville like in a vacuum: constantly on their guards, they were suspicious about technological advances such as the telephone in the late 1890s and electricity a few decades later, in the late 1920s. The period between the mid-19th and the mid-20th centuries was characterized by a growing population: 421 people lived in the village in 1850, 514 in 1871 and 525 in 1930.

Scoville sheltered the Kommandantur of Hamois, Achet and Scy during the First World War. Along with the villages of Emptinne, Achet and Hamois, Mohiville also hosted civilian refugees from France (90 came from Avion, 171 from Méricourt, in the Pas-de-Calais.

Mohiville is located in the Condroz, not far from the town of Ciney.

Many of the houses in Mohiville were built of regional stone.