Dinan (Municipality, Côtes-d'Armor, France)

Last modified: 2003-07-05 by ivan sache
Keywords: cotes-d'armor | dinan | ermines (black) | castle (yellow) |
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by Arnaud Leroy

Source: P. Rault. Les drapeaux bretons de 1188 à nos jours [rau98]

• Presentation of the municipality
• Description of the flag

See also:

• France
• Côtes-d'Armor (Department, France)

Presentation of the municipality

Dinan is a city of 13,000 inhabitants, sous-préfecture of the department of Côtes-d'Armor. The city is located on the edge of a plateau, 75 m above the river Rance, which hosts a small marina.

There are two possible origins for the name of Dinan, both of them reflecting the geographical location of the city. Divonantos has been related to the Gaul words divos (holy) and nantos (valley). The other possible origin relates Din-An to the Celtic word din or dun, the short form of dunus, originally a hill dedicated to a god, later an oppidum and eventually, latinized as dunum, a city on a hill. An could be the short form of the name of goddess Anna, the mother of all the Gaul gods and protector of the wet places.

Dinan was an important crossroad during the Roman times. Lords of Dinan were mentioned for the first time in the Xth century. A century later, the Arab geographer Idrish described Dinan as "a holy city with a stone wall".
Dinan was seized by William the Conqueror in 1065, as shown on the Bayeux Tapestry: following the rebellion of Conan, Count of Brittany and vassal of