Lokeren () is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of East Flanders, and belongs to the Waasland, also called Land van Waas, of which it is the second most important city after Sint-Niklaas. The city, located on the river Durme, the Lede, and the E17 motorway, has more than 42,100 inhabitants who are called Lokeraars or Rapenfretters. Because Lokeren is located on the Durme, Lokeren is often called "The Durme City". Horse sausages are officially recognized as a regional product.
Toponym
A group of authors see the element luken in the place name, which means (en)close or to close, to shut. Lokeren would refer to an enclosed place between the Durme and a forest area with wild animals.
According to another theory, the name Lokeren would derive from, on the one hand, the Indo-European root word leuk, which means clear or shiny, and on the other hand, the prehistoric hydronymic suffix arna, which means water. The problem with this theory is that there is no factual historical confirmation, although Leuk-arna is linguistically plausible.
History
Origins
Archaeological finds on the Lokeren territory prove that this area was populated in Neolithic times. A Roman road ran along the Durme river. The name Waas was given to this area by the Romans from the Germanic root Wasu meaning "marshy land". The first mention of the name Lokeren, however, dates from 1114. Unlike the older settlements, the new village came to be built on the right bank of the Durme. By the middle of the 12th century, it had become an independent parish, with agriculture and flax as the two main drivers of the economy. The textile industry would remain important until well into the 20th century.
14th century to 16th century
Since its inception, Lokeren has been extensively connected with other settlements and places. The city center itself is in fact a major junction of regional roads connecting Lokeren with other important places. From those important roads came branches that today form the basis of the city center.
From the Middle Ages to the end of the 18th century, the territory of Lokeren fully belonged to the Count of Flanders. However, a number of parts of the city were lent by the count to powerful landowners such as the lords of Herzele, Kokelberge and the lord of Beveren who owned a piece of land on the left side of the Markt with a castle on it. This castle was demolished in the early 17th century after the lord sold the land to the city council. An important event in the 13th century was the establishment of the Cistercian nunnery on Oudenbos. During the ensuing period, the nuns of the monastery led major excavation works on lands in the vicinity of the monastery. These lands remained in the hands of the sisters until the end of the Ancien Régime. Other religious institutions, including Baudelo Abbey, Drongen Abbey and Ter Hagen Monastery, were also active on this territory during the High Middle Ages.
16th century to 17th century
In 1555, Charles V gave Lokeren the right to hold a market. In the 16th and 17th century, the whole Waasland was in the line of fire between Protestant Netherlands and Catholic Spain, often with terrible consequences for the local population. Numerous Lokeraars were part of the immigration flow to the northern Netherlands at the end of the 16th century. The consequence of this (partial) depopulation was that many agricultural lands were no longer worked, becoming overgrown by wild vegetation. As a result, Lokeren had to contend with a real wolf plague in the 17th century. In the course of the 17th century, the city council tried to acquire plots of land adjacent to the Markt from their owners. In this way the market was eventually connected with the Durme and around 1651 it took on its more or less current contours. At the market was even a quay that went about 15 meters into the market square. After 1700 there is again talk of progress in the city. This was mainly due to the development of a new industry, hat manufacturing, for which Lokeren eventually became internationally known. Lokeren was the center of the oldest Flemish flax region, which included part of the Waasland and Dendermonde. This region supplied the best quality yarn to the Flemish weaving mill. From the 16th century until the 19th century, flax has been the raw material of the main industry of Flanders.