Last modified: 2003-07-05 by ivan sache
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![[Flag of Dinan]](../images/f/fr-22-di.gif)
by Arnaud Leroy
Source: P. Rault. Les drapeaux bretons de 1188 à nos jours [rau98]
See also:
Dinan is a city of 13,000 inhabitants, sous-préfecture of the department of Côtes-d'Armor. The city is located on the edge of a plateau, 75 m above the river Rance, which hosts a small marina.
There are two possible origins for the name of Dinan, both of them reflecting the geographical location of the city. Divonantos has been related to the Gaul words divos (holy) and nantos (valley). The other possible origin relates Din-An to the Celtic word din or dun, the short form of dunus, originally a hill dedicated to a god, later an oppidum and eventually, latinized as dunum, a city on a hill. An could be the short form of the name of goddess Anna, the mother of all the Gaul gods and protector of the wet places.
Dinan was an important crossroad during the Roman times. Lords of
Dinan were mentioned for the first time in the Xth century. A century
later, the Arab geographer Idrish described Dinan as "a holy city
with a stone wall".
Dinan was seized by William the Conqueror in 1065, as shown on the
Bayeux Tapestry: following the rebellion of Conan, Count of Brittany
and vassal of Normandy, William invaded
Brittany with his (then) friend Harold. The Tapestry shows Conant
presenting the keys of the city to William and Harold on the point of
his lance. A modern interpretation of that campaign is that William
took the pretext of Conan's revolt to show Harold how powerful he
was.
Dinan became a ducal city in 1283. During the War of Succession of
Brittany, Dinan chose the Blois party, and the city was besieged and
seized by Count of Montfort, who built there a donjon.
The city was attacked several times by the English, to no avail. A
famous episode involved Constable Bertrand du Guesclin (1320-1380),
who was born in the castle of la Mothe-Broon, near Dinan. In 1357,
Duke of Lancaster besieged the city, which was defended by du
Guesclin and his brother Olivier. During a 40-day truce, Oliver was
captured out of the city by Thomas of Canterbury, who required a
ransom of 1,000 florins. Since Olivier had left the city during a
truce and without arms, his capture was an act of perfidy. Bertrand
du Guesclin asked to solve the dispute in a single combat between
Canterbury and himself, placed under Lancaster's presidency. Du
Guesclin won and Canterbury was sentenced to pay 1,000 florins to
Olivier and was banned from the English army. Du Guesclin met during
that episode Tiphaine Raguenel and
they married.
Du Guesclin died in Auvergne near Châteauneuf-de-Randon on 13
July 1380 and had required to be buried in Dinan. His body was
embalmed, the entrails being buried in the church St. Laurent in
Le Puy (Auvergne). However, the embalmed
body deteriorated on the way back to Brittany. In Montferrand
(Auvergne), the flesh was boiled and separated from the bones, and
buried in the church of Cordeliers, which was eventually destroyed in
1793. In Le Mans (Maine, close to
Brittany), a Royal officer ordered to transfer the body to the Royal
necropole of Saint-Denis, near Paris, and was given the bones. The
heart was spirited away and sent to Dinan, where it was buried in the
church St. Sauveur.
During the XVth century, the city walls were strenghtened. The city was given municipal rights in 1418. The General States of Brittany gathered in Dinan 15 times, from 1352 to 1718.
Weaving mills were built in Dinan in the XVIIIth century, but
Dinan was mostly known for being the most pleasant and aristocratic
garrison City in France.
The city walls and the XV-XVIth century old city have been preserved
until now and Dinan is one of the most beautiful medieval cities in
France.
Dinan is the birth city of Auguste Pavie (1847-1925), a diplomat and explorer who incorporated most of Indochina to France when he was Commissioner in Laos (1893-1895); Théodore Botrel (1868-1925), a chansonnier famous for La Paimpolaise and other patriotic songs; and Yvonne Jean-Haffen (1895-1993), a painter of Mathurin Méheut's school, were also born in Dinan.
Sources:
Ivan Sache, 17 November 2002
The flag of Dinan is a banner of the municipal arms,which are:
De gueules au château donjonné de trois tourelles d'or, maçonné de sable, au chef d'hermine.
The castle of Dinan was mentioned for the first time in 1040. The municipal arms are derived from a seal belonging to Charles of Dinan Montafilant (1370).
Source: GASO
Ivan Sache, 17 November 2002