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Seine-Maritime (Department, France)

Flag of Seine-Maritime - Image by Ivan Sache, 21 October 2011

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Administrative data

Code: 76
Region: Haute-Normandie
Traditional province: Normandy
Bordering departments: Eure, Oise, Somme

Area: 6,278 km²
Population (2005): 1,254,000 inhabitants

Préfecture: Rouen
Sous-préfectures: Dieppe, Le Havre
Subdivisions: 3 arrondissements, 69 cantons, 745 communes.

The department is named after river Seine (776 km), tributary of the English Channel.
Formerly known as Seine-Inférieure (Lower Seine), the department was renamed Seine-Maritime on 18 January 1955.

Ivan Sache, 14 November 2009

Flag of Seine-Maritime

The flag of Seine-Maritime (photos, 20 August 2010) is red with the logo of the department in the middle.

The logo of Seine-Maritime (description) was unveiled during a session of the General Council held on 14 March 2005. It is made of two oblong, orange rectangles separated by a white vertical line, placed over a red wavy stripe separated form the rectangles by a wave and a wavelet, both white. Two human silhouettes are placed on the orange rectangles. "Seine-Maritime" is written in red letters above the rectangles, while the red wavy stripe is charged with "Le Département", written in white letters.
The writing evokes both the territory and the institution, to highlight the human community beyond the administrative division [that is, the General Council is no longer mentioned, following a trend common to several departments). The two rectangles are a symbol of equity and balance, also communicating strength, vigor and firmness to the logo. They are anchored in a base labelled "The Department", which means both progress and stability and expresses everybody's link to a territory s/he can be proud of. The two silhouettes are a symbol of like and dynamism, representing the human and sticking together dimensions of the department's action. Placed in the heart of the logo, they are simple and stylized, to be used on a wide array of communication supports as evoking modernity and youth. The warm colors increase the human dimension and the logo's boost to create a new, positive and dynamic image of the department.

Former flag of Seine-Maritime - Image by Ivan Sache, 21 October 2011

Before 2005, the department used a white flag with the former logo of the General Council (description). The former logo is mostly blue, symbolizing the sea, and green, symbolizing the land, separated by a white fimbriation symbolizing the coats and the cliffs. The stylized "S M" letters, made of four white lines, are placed in the lower part of the logo; seven yellow lines parallel to the white "coastal" line emerge from the "M". "CONSEIL GÉNÉRAL" is written in blue letters below the emblem.

Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 21 October 2011