Namur [Province of] (Belgium)

Last modified: 2002-05-10 by ivan sache
Keywords: namur | wallonia | coat of arms | lion (black) | governor |
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by Gerard van der Vaart

• Official flag
• Banner of arms (unofficial)
• Provincial colours (unofficial)
• Provincial governor's honorary flag

See also:

• Belgium
• Belgium: Administrative divisions
• Wallonia
• Municipal flags in the province of Namur

Official flag

Namur has a vertical black over red flag. I guess the proportions are 1:1. The *city* of Namur has black over yellow. The colours are derived from the arms of the province and the city. The city has a black lion, nails and tongue red, a red crown on a golden background, the province has the same with a red bend per sinister. Adopted by decree 15 October 1953.

Pascal Vagnat, 23 March 1997

THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL
ACCORDING to the proposal by the permanent Deputation for the adoption of the official flag of the Province of Namur and the description of its blazon;

ACCORDING to the report of Mr. J. BOVESSE, Curator of the National Archives in Namur;

WHEREAS it results from the studies by Messers. the historians BROUWERS and HUART that the black and red colours, used by the Province since 1930, are those of a former count of Namur, Charles the Foolhardy, Duke of Burgondy; [WHEREAS] if the black and yellow colours have been more often in use in the county of Namur, especially in the XVIIIth century, their adoption by the Province is no longer relevant since the city of Namur has adopted them durign the session of the Municipal Council of 22 January 1909;

[...]

RULES THAT

Article First

The flag of the Province of Namur is made of black and red colours, placed parallel to the hoist, black at hoist.

[...]

Namur, the 15th of October 1953

[...]

Decree forwarded by Gerard van der Vaart and translated from French by Ivan Sache, 3 September 2000

Banner of arms (unofficial)

from the Shipmate site, with permission

Gold, a lion, Sable, armed and langued Gules, a stripe Gules, bendy. The shield is surmonted by a Earldom crown with 13 pearls, 3 raised.
A square banner of the arms is often used as unofficial flag.

Source: M. Lupant [lup98]

Ivan Sache, 3 September 2000

John I of Flanders, born from Gui of Dampierre and his second wife Isabelle of Luxembourg, was the youngest son of the House of Flanders. When he received the County of Namur in 1297, he took for banner the lion of Flanders with a red cotice (bend) as brisure, and crowned the lion with a Count crown.

Source: Unofficial Namur website.

Ivan Sache, 11 October 2001

Provincial colours

The colours were taken from the arms. These colours were not fixed. The sources are:

• A chart called Vlaggen der Belgische Provincies - Drapeaux des Provinces Belges (Flags of the Belgian Provinces). This is not dated, but to judge from the font face used, it is from the 1920s or 1930s.
• Some Dutch atlases and books about the provinces show another set, published by Rudi Koot in Vexilla Nostra [vxn] #185 (1993) p. 32-33

by Mark Sensen

Provincial Governor's honorary flag

by Mark Sensen

I have some xerox copies of sheets which seam to come from a book (bilingual Dutch and French) containing regulations (for the Navy maybe?). It contains a sheet with the honorary flags of the governors of the provinces, adopted by Order in Council of 28 October 1936.
It includes a construction sheet. The flags are 150x150 cm. Each stripe is 50 cm. The shields are 43.5 cm. wide and 50 cm. high excluding 3.75 cm for the point of the shield. The shields are in the center of the black stripe.

Mark Sensen, 27 January 2001