Last modified: 2006-12-23 by ivan sache
Keywords: savoie | chambery | star (yellow) | cross (white) | posthorn | chasseurs alpins | bourget-du-lac (le) |
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![[Municipal flag of Chambery]](../images/f/fr-73-ch.gif)
Flag of Chambéry - Image by Ivan Sache, 14 July 2000
See also:
Chambéry (ca. 55,000 inhabitants) is the prefecture of the
department of Savoie.
Chambéry became the capital of the County of Savoy in
1232, which was erected to Duchy in 1391. After several French
occupations, Duke Emmanuel-Philibert transfered in 1563 the
capital of the Duchy to Turin (now in
Piedmonte, Italy), which is located beyond
the Alps mountains, and was therefore less exposed to French
conquest. As a compensation, Chambéry was granted in 1559
a Senate constituted on the model of the French (local) parliaments.
Chambéry has always been an important town on the
transalpine road between Lyon and Turin.
Ivan Sache, 14 July 2000
The flag of Chambéry is the Savoy cross (white on red) with a yellow five-pointed star in first quarter. It is a banner of the municipal arms.
Ivan Sache, 14 July 2000
I recently found a metallic badge featuring a posthorn. A shield, topped with a spreading
eagle is encircled in the posthorn curl.
There is a trademark ARTHUS BERTRAND PARIS DEPOSE (patented) on the
reverse of the badge. Arthus Bertrand is still active in producing
high quality pins and badges.
This is a uniform jacket badge of a local regiment since the
shield reproduces the Savoy cross. A careful examination reveals
more details: the shield is in fact the banner of arms of
Chambéry, a star being added in
canton. The badge must therefore belong to the Bataillon de
Chasseurs Alpins (BCA - Mountain Troops). The posthorn and the
eagle are traditional emblems of the BCAs.
An even more careful examination shows that the badge has been
manually "defaced" with a sharp iron tool. The badge owner carved a
small cross of Lorraine above a V letter, for victory in the middle of the Savoy cross.
Unfortunately, I do not know anything about the origin of this
particular badge. I can only infer it was "defaced" after the
liberation of Savoy in 1945. It could also be hypothesized
that the Lorraine cross was initially added when the badge owner
joined the Resistance movements, which were very powerful and popular
in Savoy, and added later the V after the liberation. It seems that
the cross and the V have not been carved the same way.
All along the Alps mountains, the BCAs resisted in 1940 the Mussolinian troops, which entered France only with the support of their Nazi allies and without any military success. Mussolini had waited the shameful defeat of June 1940 before entering the war against France - as a reward, the Mussolinian troops occupied Savoy and County of Nice, until replaced by the Nazis after the fall of Mussolini. Comparatively, Italian occupation was rather mild.
Ivan Sache, 22 August 2000
It is the badge of the 13th Battalion of Chasseurs Alpins, one of
the original alpine battalions of 1888. The shield is indeed the arms
of Chambéry, which was the battalion's peace time
garrison.
The V sounds like a personal addition; the battalion was
reconstituted in 1944 from two units of the
FFI, and so must have included some
resistors in its ranks.
Of all the other battalions, only the short lived (1939-40) also had
a coat of arms on its badge: the 93rd of 1939-40 included the arms of
Savoy. This is not surprising, since it was formed at
Chambéry, from reservists of the 13th.
Badges like this were introduced during the 1920s and 1930s. The badge discussed here is mid-forties in date, since in 1947, the Army introduced a sealed pattern number (nombre d'homologation) which was stamped onto the rear of each badge [and is not present on the badge discussed here].
Ian Sumner, 23 August 2000
![[Burgee of CNC]](../images/f/fr-73~ch.gif)
Burgee of Club Nautique Chambéry Le Bourget-du-Lac - Image by Ivan Sache, 17 December 2005
Lake du Bourget has the shape of a north-south oriented rectangle (2 x 15 km; its area is
4,500 ha and its maximum depth 145 m, making of it the largest and
deepest natural lake in France.
Le Bourget-du-Lac (2,886 inhabitants) is located close to Chambéry at
the southern end of the lake. It was in the past the main commerce port
in Savoy, linked to Lyon by the canal de Savières and the river Rhône.
A regular line with steamships linked Le Bourget and Lyon until 1859.
The foritified priory of Le Bourget was built in the XIth century by
St. Odilon, one of the great abbots of Cluny on a piece of land ceded
by Count of Savoy Humbert aux Blanches Mains (Whitehanded).
Club Nautique Chambéry Le Bourget-du-Lac, based in Le Bourget, was
founded in 1898. Its burgee is made of five blue-white-blue-white-blue
stripes converging to the point of the flag and the traditional cross
of Savoy (white cross on red) in canton.
The attached image is a possible reconstruction of the burgee after the
logotype of the rowing section of the club, which includes a
representation of the burgee.
Source: Club website
Ivan Sache, 17 December 2005