The flag of the French department of the Ardennes combines the band of Champagne, a black boar —the animal of the forest —and a chief with three rakes.
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 an armorial banner with a 2:3 ratio: the coat of arms of the department drawn over the whole field. At the top there is a stripe (stripe: each band of colour) and below, the rest of the field.
Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The flag associated with Ardennes is an armorial banner: at the top a red stripe with three golden rakes, and below the rest of the field with a bend.
Ardennes is a department in north-eastern France, in the Ardennes region. Its flag is an armorial banner, not a flag with a coat of arms in the centre.
It has never changed. No approval date is recorded.
Red stripe
takes up the upper third.
Three golden rakes
two at the top and one below, in the centre of the stripe.
Bend
over the rest of the field.
The heraldry of the Ardennes uses the rake, a farming tool associated with the transformation of forests into fields. It is a symbol of the work of the territory, not a courtly figure.
Unlike other departmental flags, here the field is divided in two: one third at the top with the red stripe and two thirds below with the bend. It is the horizontal division, and not a quartering, that structures this coat of arms.
The flag is the coat of arms of the department stretched over the field, with no frame or coat of arms on top. It is one of the many French departments that fly the shield directly on the cloth.
Test what you have read about the flag of Department of Ardennes.
Flag image: Spedona, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0.
