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Séné (Municipality, Morbihan, France)

Last modified: 2023-11-03 by olivier touzeau
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[Flag]         [Flag]

Flag of Séné, current and former versions - Images by Olivier Touzeau, 29 December 2021, and Ivan Sache, 20 June 2010, respectively


See also:


Presentation of Séné

The municipality of Séné (8,905 inhabitants in 2007; 1,994 ha) is located at the end of the Gulf of Morbihan, east of Vannes.

Ivan Sache, 20 June 2010


Flag of Séné

The flag of Séné (photo) is white with the municipal logo, which features the sails of a local sinagot boat.
The former flag of Séné (photo, photo) was white with the municipal coat of arms, "Azure a sinagot sable sailed gules dexter a pale vert a wading bird argent contourned standing on a sea wavy fessy argent and azure a chief argent five ermine spots sable", surmounted by the name of the municipality written in black capital letters.

The arms of Séné, adopted in 1993, were designed by Christian Dagault, then Deputy Mayor of the town. They illustrate the town's motto, "Beviñ etre an oebr hag ar mor" (Breton, To Live Between Sky and Sea).
The main charge is a local sinagot boat. The bird is a black-winged stilt (Himantopus himantopus (Linnaeus, 1758)). In 1993, Séné was the bird's northernmost hatching site in Europe; since then, the migration area has dramatically increased to the north (Bay of Somme and England).
The five ermine spots represent the five departments constituting historical Brittany.
[Patrimoine Ti Anna]

Sinagots boats, with their emblematic black hull and red ocher sails, were used until 1964 to gather oysters and for coastal fishing, mostly in the Gulf of Morbihan.
Until the first half of the 19th century, sinagots were single-masted, with a square sail. Two-masted sinagots were built from 1857 to 1914 at the Martin shipyard in Kerdavid (Séné), and, subsequently, until 1943, at the Querrien shipyard in Le Bono. A total of 652 sinagots was released. In 1910, the Séné fleet had more than 150 boats; at the time, a regatta was organized every year in the Gulf of Morbihan. Only two original sinagots have been kept until now: Ma Préférée (1933), whose hull is kept at the Douarnenez museum, and Les Trois Frères (1943, the last produced sinagot), which still sails and was registered an historical monument on 29 December 1983.
In the 1950s, another three sinagots were designed from scratch for leisure purpose: Dear Miss (1954), subsequently renamed to Gwéned; Belle Hortense (1958); and Joli Vent (1958). Only Joli Vent is equipped with the sinagot's traditional rigging. Four replicas were released in the 1980s: Ma Préférée (1981, copy of the aforementioned original), Mab er Guip (1985, copy of Vainqueur des Jaloux, 1933), Jean et Jeanne (1990, copy of the eponymous boat, 1905); and Crieléis (copy of Jouet des Flots, 1930). The Douarnenez museum reconstituted in 1987 the sinagot Souvenir (1883) for pedagogical purpose.
[Les Amis du Sinagot]

Olivier Touzeau & Ivan Sache, 29 December 2021