Black ermine spots on white with a red border and a wavy blue stripe: it is the armorial banner of Haute-Vienne, in very occasional and unofficial use.
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, white, covered with black spots, with a red border around it and a stripe —a band of colour —wavy and blue that crosses it from side to side.
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-Vienne is a white field covered with black spots, with a red border around it and a wavy blue stripe crossing it.
Haute-Vienne is a department in central-western France. Its armorial banner is in very occasional and unofficial use.
The black spots are the fur of the ermine, drawn in a stylised way and repeated over the whole white field. It is a motif of old heraldry.
It has never changed. No approval date is recorded.
White
the colour of the field.
Black spots
many and repeated, of the same size, on the white. They are the fur of the ermine.
Red border
all around the field.
Blue stripe
wavy, it crosses the whole field through the centre.
The motif of the black spots is the ermine, a rodent whose fur, with its white spots, was the most expensive sign in medieval heraldry. Here it is stylised: only the black crescents on white, repeated over the whole field.
This piece is in very occasional and unofficial use. It is not a departmental flag in the strict sense, but the armorial banner, which hangs in some public buildings.
The oldest motif of heraldry —the ermine— is crossed by a wavy blue stripe. Mixing a medieval pattern with a modern line of water is what sets this banner apart from a usual regional flag.
Test what you have read about the flag of Department of Haute-Vienne.
Flag image: Spedona, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0.
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