Chambéry (Municipality, Savoie, France)

Last modified: 2002-10-12 by ivan sache
Keywords: savoie | chambery | star (yellow) | cross (white) | posthorn | chasseurs alpins |
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by Ivan Sache

• Presentation of the city
• Description of the flag
• Army badge with the arms of Chambéry

See also:

• France
• Savoie (Department, France)

Presentation of the city

Chambéry (ca. 55,000 inhabitants) is the prefecture of the department of Savoie.

Chambéry became the capital of the county of Savoie in 1232, which was erected to duchy in 1391. After several French occupations, the duke Emmanuel-Philibert transfered in 1563 the capital of the duchy to Torino (now in Piedmonte, Italy), which is located beyond the Alps mountains, and was therefore less exposed to French conquest. As a compensation, Chambéry had been granted in 1559 a Senate constituted on the model of the French (local) parliaments.

Chambéry has always been an important city on the transalpine road between Lyon and Torino.

Ivan Sache, 14 July 2000

Description of the flag

The flag 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

Army badge with the arms of Chambéry

I recently found a metallic badge which has some vexillological interest.
The badge features 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 Savoy regiment since the shield reproduces the Savoy cross. A careful examination revealed more details: the shield is in fact the banner of arms of Chambéry, the former capital of Savoy, 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 Lorraine cross 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 the province 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 moun