The flag of Haute-Garonne (Toulouse) reproduces the Occitan cross with four loopholes: a proposed coat of arms never adopted; the council uses a blue field.
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 field with a 2:3 ratio, red, with a golden twelve-pointed cross in the centre and four white pieces at the angles of that cross.
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 Haute-Garonne is a red field with the twelve-pointed Occitan cross in gold and four white loopholes at the angles of the cross. It is a proposed coat of arms that was never adopted: the departmental council flies a blue field instead.
Haute-Garonne is a French department with its capital in Toulouse. It has no official flag. The one that circulates as its own was proposed and never gained official status; the departmental council flies a blue field in its place.
The cross of four loopholes is the Occitan cross, and it is not a local detail: it is the emblem of Occitania, the historic region that stretches from Toulouse to the Mediterranean coast.
It has never changed, because it was never official. The blue field of the council is the one used in practice, and it has no documented heraldic description.
Red
the colour of the field.
Golden twelve-pointed cross
the Occitan cross, with arms widening outwards and rounded points. It does not touch the edges.
Four white pieces
the loopholes, placed at the angles of the cross. Loopholes are the firing openings of a tower.
The design exists, is known and is reproduced, but the department never formally adopted it. The council flies a blue field instead. It is a rare case: the vexillological flag of the department is a coat of arms that was not adopted.
The cross of four loopholes is the symbol of Occitania, the historic region that includes Toulouse. Haute-Garonne is only one part of it, but its boundaries almost coincide with the core of Occitania, which explains why the emblem is attributed to it as its own.
The four white pieces are loopholes, the openings through which a tower fires. They appear in the Occitan cross because the tower is seen from above: it is a figure seen in plan, not in elevation.
Test what you have read about the flag of Department of Haute-Garonne.
Sources consulted:
Flag image: Spedona, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0.
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