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Bergen (The Netherlands)

Limburg province

Shipmate Flagchart : http://www.shipmate.nl/flags.htm

Bergen municipality
Bergen CoA

See also:

Bergen municipality

Number of inhabitants (1 Jan 2003): 13.464; area: 109,43 km². Settlements: Afferden, Nieuw Bergen, Bergen en Aijen, Siebengewald, Well, and Wellerlooi.
Bergen is in north Limburg on the Maas river. The municipality consists of the old 'lordships' of Bergen en Well, Afferden en Aijen. A lordship was an area, from which a title and rights were derived. In 1798 the lordships in the Netherlands were replaced by "communes" (French model). In 1800 the smaller communes were merged to form "mairies", municipalities. In 1800 the municipality of Bergen was formed by the merger of the communes Afferden, Heijen and Well-Bergen. In 1973 the village of Heijen was assigned to the municipality of Gennep.
The flag was adopted on 14 Oct 1969 by municipal resolution. The stripes of the flag have been derived from the shields and escutcheons (saints), depicted on the CoA. The main colors are gold (yellow) and azure (nlue), while the escutcheons are meinly red. In order to represent the three lordships in a fair way on the flag the choice was made for five horizontal stripes with colors yellow, blue, red, yellow, and blue.
Source: the Bergen municipal website.
Jarig Bakker, 22 May 2003

Bergen CoA

image from the Bergen municipal website.

The CoA consists of elements of the arms of the oldest settlements in the municipality.
The lordship of Bergen en Well had a "schepenbank" (civil court), which used a seal with a straight standing arrow, pointed upwards. This seal was derived from the arms of the Van Straelen family, who were lords of Well in the 13th century. (see also Strelná and Strelice (Czechia) - arrow is in Czech strela).
The lordship of Afferden with the Bleijenbeek castle coincided with the parish of Afferden, with patron saints Cosmas and Damianus. On several seals of the "schepenbank" these physicians from Asia Minor were depicted; St. Cosmas with a mortar and pestle in his left hand, and St. Damianus with an ampulla in his right hand. Both saints carry a sword because they were beheaded.
The lordship of Heijen, which contrary to the two Gelrian lordships above, belonged to the duchy of Cleve, had St. Dionysius on its arms. Dionysius is the patron saint of the parish church, a bishop who was beheaded in Paris.
The CoA was granted by Royal Resolution on 22 Jan 1907.
Source: the Bergen municipal website.
Jarig Bakker, 22 May 2003