Dinard (Municipality, Ille-et-Vilaine, France)

Last modified: 2002-07-20 by ivan sache
Keywords: ille-et-vilaine | dinard | ermines: 11 (black) | ermine (black and white) | bear: crowned (black) | cercle celtique de dinard | cross (white) |
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by Pascal Vagnat

• Description of the flag
• Flag used until 1998
• Cercle Celtique de Dinard
• Sources

See also:

• France
• Ille-et-Vilaine (Department, France)
• Yacht Club de Dinard

Description of the flag

Dinard is a famous seaside resort located opposite Saint-Malo (the two cities are separated by the river Rance).

In 1997, the Municipal Council decided to adopt a new flag and instructed the Breton Vexillological Society to submit proposals. The only requirement was an explicit reference to King Arthur, the city founder (see below). The final version of the flag was sketched by Philippe Rault and designed by the professional art designer Jakez Derouét. It was presented to the public on 25 May 1998.

The flag has a wide vertical golden stripe along the hoist, charged with a standing black bear (in Berlin style). The bear is surmonted by an antique golden crown. The rest of the flag is filled with ten horizontal, alternating blue and white stripes.
Blue and white were adopted as colors of the city in 1989. They refer to the legendary arms of King Arthur (d'azur à trois couronnes d'or - Azure, three crowns Or). The horizontal stripes represent the sea and the famous beach tents of Dinard, which are blue and white striped. The number of stripes is meaningless.
Gold represents the thin sand of the beaches.
The bear is the symbolic representation of King Arthur. King Arthur landed near what is now Dinard in spring 513 to help the Breton King Hoël to defeat the Frisian invaders. He built there a fort named Dinarthu, the Bear's fort. In Breton, arth (ancient Breton) or arz (modern Breton) means bear and represents the miltary power of royal essence. Dinarthu became Dinarth and later Dinarz, translated to French as "Dinart", and finally and erroneously changed to "Dinard" when the place became popular at the end of the 19th century.

Flag used until 1998

by Ivan Sache

The former city flag was its banner of arms, based on the arms of the priory of Dinard (founded 1324), de sinople à la croix d'hermine - Vert, a cross Ermine. A red vertical stripe wasadded to each quarter and the ermine spots were bicolor (black and white), a unique and unexplained case in Brittany. The flag was heraldically incorrect (metal on metal in the quarters) and suffered from low visibility. It was often replaced with a simpler vertically divided green - red flag.

Cercle celtique de Dinard

by Ivan Sache,

The Cercle Celtique de Dinard (Dinard Celtic Circle) still uses a green flag with a white cross charged with 11 black ermine spots.

Sources

• P. Rault, "L'histoire des drapeaux bretons", 1998 [rau98]
• P. Rault, 2 papers in Ar Banniel [arb], #6, July 1998, giving more details about the creation of the new flag, rejected proposals (especially the first submissions including green color, rejected by the Mayor who claimed: "Anyway, I don't like green!"), and evolution of the bear design (finally castrated according to the Mayor's recommendation).

Ivan Sache, 3 August 1998