NIVELLES (Flem. Nyvel)  , a town of Belgium in the province of Brabant, situated on the Thines 19 m . S. of Brussels . Pop . (1904) 12,109 . It is a busy little place with many industries, notably the manufacture of parchment . The town is supposed to owe its origin to the foundation of a convent on the spot by Itta or Iduberge, wife of Pippin of Landen . The Romanesque church of St Gertrude, named after Itta's daughter, dates from the nth century, but has been badly restored and is disfigured by a heavy tower . On the top of the tower is the effigy of a man in iron who strikes the hours with a hammer . He is called by the townspeople Jean de Nivelles, a celebrated baron of the 15th century whose title eventually became merged in that of the count de Hornes (Horn) . The church is supposed to occupy the site of Itta's convent . Close to Nivelles is Seneffe, where Conde defeated William of Orange in 1674, and at Nivelles itself the French under Marceau defeated the Austrians in 1794 .