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Last modified: 2015-04-25 by ivan sache
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Flag of Gap - Image by Ivan Sache, 1 June 2014
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The municipality of Gap (40,654 inhabitants in 2011; 11,043 ha; municipal website), located 100 km south of Grenoble and 170 km north-east of Marseilles, is the biggest town in the South Alps. Gap is also the French departmental capital located at the highest elevation (600 m). The former municipalities of Chaudun and Romette were incorporated to Gap on 22 October 1895 and 25 November 1974, respectively.
Gap was established by the Romans as a fortified camp named Vapum /
Vapincum. The etymology of this name, probably pre-Roman, is obscure.
The small (c. 300 sq. m) camp, built near two sources and protected by
ditches, could accommodate some 350 soldiers. Settled by colonists,
farmers and merchants, the village significantly increased in the next
centuries, which required the building of a much bigger fortification
wall.
Gap was evangelized in the 3rd century. During the building of the
modern cathedral (1866-1905,) remains of the primitive (3rd-4th
century) church, dedicated to St. Demetrius, were excavated. The
bishopric of Gap was established in the 5th century, suppressed in
1801 and re-established in 1822; it was merged in 2008 with the
bishopric of Embrun to form the bishopric of Gap and Embrun. St.
Aredius, bishop of Gap (579-614) is the hero of yet another tradition
involving a bear tamed by a saint - an allegory of the evangelization
of pagans. Aredius forced the wild bear to pull his cart after the
beast had scared one of the oxen; arrived at Gap, the saint released
the good bear that promised to go back into the mountains and to
never, ever scare anyone. Nothing was heard about the bear until the
death of Aredius, when the good bear attended the saint's funeral.
Gap, liberated from the Saracens, was granted on 28 December 986 to the bishop of Gap by William I, Count of Provence. Establishing religious foundations was a convenient means to re-settle and develop the reconquerred areas. Bishop Féraud de Nice (1000-1044) retroceded in 1044 half of the town to William V Bertrand, Count of Provence. The rule of the bishop, sometimes very stringent, was continuously challenged by the inhabitants of the town, often supported by feudal lords. Bishop Jacques Artaud (1366-1399) eventually signed on 7 March 1378 a magna carta (Greater Charter). Among other privileges, the charter allowed the town to arm a militia watching the town's gates.
Gap was totally destroyed, but a few houses, in 1692, by a blaze set
by the troops of the Duke of Savoy. The rebuilding of the town started
around 1720.
Gap was modernized by Baron Charles-François de Ladoucette
(1772-1848), préfet of the department of Hautes-Alpes from
1802 to 1809. Ladoucette offered 25,000 francs of his own to build the
road connecting France to Italy via the col de Montgenèvre (the very
same road where Aredius had tamed the bear); he founded the first
museum in Gap and the Société d'émulation des Hautes-Alpes (today, SociŽtŽ d'études des Hautes-Alpes). The Gap-born sculptor Jean Marcellin (1821-1884) made a statue of Ladoucette, which he offered in 1866 to the town.
Ivan Sache, 1 June 2014
The flag of Gap is vertically divided blue-yellow.
The flag, reported in 1985 by Lucien Philippe (Quelques drapeaux de
villes des régions alpines, Emblèmes et pavillons, No. 4, pp.19-20), appears to be still in use (photo, photo, Town Hall).
The colours of the flag are taken from the municipal arms, "Azure a
castle quadruple towered with conical roofs or pierced of the field
masoned and the gateway sable".
The arms were formally adopted in 1965 by the Municipal Council. The
medieval arms, "Gules a cross or", were replaced in the 17th century
by arms granted by the king, showing "a fortified wall" [Brian Timms].
Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 1 June 2014
