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Pas-de-Calais (Department, France)

Flag of Pas-de-Calais, three versions - Images by Olivier Touzeau, 2 May 2019

Municipalities

See also:

Administrative data

Code: 62
Region: Hauts-de-France (Nord-Pas de Calais until 2014)
Traditional provinces: Artois, Picardy
Bordering departments: Nord, Somme

Area: 6,671 km²Population (2015): 1,470,725 inhabitants

Préfecture: Arras
Sous-préfectures: Béthune, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Calais, Lens, Montreuil-sur-Mer, Saint-Omer
Subdivisions: 7 arrondissements, 39 cantons, 891 municipalities.

The department is named for Pas de Calais, the French name of the Strait of Dover.
On 1 January 1971, the municipality of Ytres was transferred from the department of Somme to the department of Pas-de-Calais. On 1 January 1974, the municipality of Beauvoir-Rivière, transferred from Somme to Pas-de-Calais, merged with Wavans-sur-l'Authie to form the municipality of Beauvoir-Wavans.

Ivan Sache, 14 April 2019

Flag of Pas-de-Calais

The flag used by the Departmental Council of Pas-de-Calais (photo) is blue with the new version of the Council's logo, monochrmous with a different font, adopted in June 2016. Another version of the flag (photo) shows the graphic part in bigger size with the wording beneath.
In 2008, the Council's original logo was modernized: the blue lines were integrated inside the green triangle and the font was changed. In 2009, the words "Conseil général" were replaced by "Le Département". In 2009 the flag of the then General Council (photo, photo) was white with the logo, in which the words "Conseil général" were replaced by "Le Département".

Olivier Touzeau, 2 May 2019

Flags of the former General Council

Former flag of the General Council of Pas-de-Calais, two versions - Images by Ivan Sache, 17 October 2009, and Olivier Touzeau, 2 May 2019, respectively

The former flag of the General Council was white with the Council's former logo.
The former logo was made of a green triangle representing a highly stylized map of the department, flanked on its left by six hatchings representing the sea. "PAS.DE.CALAIS" is written in blue letters below.
In a previous version, the logo had a different shape with straight basis of the triangl

Pascal Vagnat & Olivier Touzeau, 2 May 2019

Firefighters Departmental Corps

Flag of the Firefighters Departmental Corps - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 27 December 2020

The flag of the Firefighters Departmental Corps (photo, photo) is white with the corps' emblem.

Olivier Touzeau, 27 December 2020

Diocese of Arras

Flag of the Diocese of Arras - Image by Ivan Sache, 29 December 2008

France is divided in Ecclesiastic Provinces of the Roman Catholic church, itself divided in Dioceses. Upon request of the French bishops, the Provinces were restructured in 2002 (Decree of Pope John Paul II, 8 December 2002) to better match the French administrative divisions, especially the Regions (for the Provinces) and the Departments (for the Dioceses). The Ecclesiastic Province of Lille (Cambrai before 2008), matching Region Nord-Pas-de-Calais, is made of the Dioceses of Lille (Metropolitan Archbishopric), Cambrai (Archbishopric) and Arras. The Diocese of Arras, formally known as "Diocese of Arras, Boulogne-sur-Mer and Saint-Omer" and matching the Department of Pas-de-Calais, is made of 94 parishes grouped in 10 decanates.

The flag of the Diocese of Arras (photo, World Youth Day 2005) is pale yellow flag with the logo of the diocese in the middle. The photographer writes on his blog: "[...] our yellow flag of the Diocese of Arras [...], the colours depend on the buses." I understand that the managers of the group from Arras designed flags with different coloured background to be able to identify the group members and to load them in their respective buses. The flag has, most probably, no official character.
The logo of the diocese was designed in 1999 by the graphist Alain Crépin for the celebration of the Jubileaum A.D. 2000. It is made of a stylized, multicoloured cross, with blue (W), yellow (N), red (E) and green (S) branches, surrounded by fragments of circles, red (NW), green (NE), blue (SE) and yellow (SW). A white dove is placed in the middle of the cross. "DIOCÈSE / D'ARRAS" is written in white letters on a red rectangle placed near the lower left part of the logo, the "D" being on the green branch of the cross.
Crépin explains that he represented a cross similar to those erected in the local countryside, not to be seen as a torture and pain device but as a wooden cross bending under the western wind. A bird is resting in the middle of the branches of the cross. More than a cross, this cross is a communication forum located at the crossroads of men and ideas.
The green branch of the cross represents the countryside, the vitality of the plants and of the rural part of the diocese.
The blue branch of the cross represents the sea and the West, vacation, tourism and the hard job of seamen.
The red branch represents the eastern part of the diocese, the former mining and industrial district; here red represents science and technology but also blood, tears, illness, loneliness, unemploiement and exclusion. The sharp angles of the red branch are like daggers or bad words symbolizing sin, the hardness of the human heart and the refuse to be kind and welcoming.
The yellow branch of the cross represents the highness of the soul and the heights of heavens, as well as the ascending road to life and God's voice.
The circle looks like a clock with needles never stopping turning, every moment being God's gift. The circle also means that nobody can stay still and that we all should meet each other.
The dove announces the end of the Deluge, of bad weather, of unhappy events. In the center of the logo, the colour is bright like the sun, mystery and God, calling for concentration and prayer.
[Diocese of Arras]

Ivan Sache, 29 December 2008