A red lion and three blue waves on a white ground: the arms of the region, turned into the first flag of Nouvelle-Aquitaine in December 2016.
Every fact about the flag, each with what it means.
Normal flagFIAV symbol: the form of the flag.
CivilFIAV symbol: who may fly the flag.YesIt carries the coat of arms on the cloth.The flag in the words of vexillology and heraldry.
It is a rectangular white field with the arms of the region drawn directly onto the ground: three blue waves by the flagpole (the hoist side) and, beside them, a red lion rampant.
Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.
Every date in its story, at a glance.
Nouvelle-Aquitaine was born on 1 January 2016
Around 2018 and early 2019 the council used a white flag with the coat of arms and below…
In June 2019 the region changed its image and the current flag is white with an emblem that mixes…
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
This flag is the arms of Nouvelle-Aquitaine drawn over the whole field: a red lion, rampant, on a white ground, and three blue waves to its left. It was the first flag of the region. Today the regional council uses another one, white with an emblem.
Nouvelle-Aquitaine was born on 1 January 2016, by joining three regions: Aquitaine, Limousin and Poitou-Charentes. During the first months it was provisionally called with the three names and used a white flag with a temporary logo.
In December 2016 the region presented a new logo and a coat of arms, which was meant to serve for flags, letters from the presidency and official gifts, and its use was reserved to the regional council. The flag is that coat of arms over the whole field.
The flag of 2016 was the first. Around 2018 and early 2019 the council used a white flag with the coat of arms and below it the words “Région Nouvelle Aquitaine”. In June 2019 the region changed its image and the current flag is white with an emblem that mixes the logo and the coat of arms in red or black, with the name below. That white flag does not yet have a free image, and so the one from 2016 is shown here.
Red lion on white
the red lion was used across this whole territory from the eleventh century. Cities such as Poitiers, Châtellerault, Espelette and Ustaritz still bear it on their coats of arms.
Blue waves
they were added in the 2016 coat of arms to recall that Aquitaine was the “land of waters”, with its rivers and its coast.
White
the ground of the coat of arms.
In the logo of the region, the lion’s head looks to the Atlantic, like the Cordouan lighthouse, called “the guardian of the ocean”. Its wavy mane draws the courses of five great rivers.
Until June 2016 the region was provisionally called “Aquitaine-Limousin-Poitou-Charentes”, with the names of the three regions that were joined.
According to the FOTW flag portal, the lion’s head of the logo refers to the emblem of Richard the Lionheart, son of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Test what you have read about the flag of Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
Flag image: Chabe01, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.
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