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Free State of Glénan (France)

État libre des Glénan

Last modified: 2023-09-09 by olivier touzeau
Keywords: finistere | fouesnant | foen | eagle: double-headed (black) | glenan | sardine |
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[Flag of Free State of Glénan]

Flag of the Free State of Glénan - Image by Olivier Touzeau, after a drawing by Hervé Prat, 2 December 2021


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Presentation of Glénan

The Glénan archipelago is made of a dozen of islands surrounding a kind of lagoon locally called la Chambre (The Room). The area is protected and hosts an ornithological reserve. An endemic (found only there) narcissus species flowers on the islands for three weeks in mid-April. This flower was described in 1803 by a Breton druggist. Fournier gives several names for the flower: N. reflexus, N. calathinus, N. triander and N. Loiseleuri, whereas Bonnier calls it only N. calathinus.
The islands of Bananec and Grenec host the Centre nautique de Glénan, the biggest yachting school in Europe. Island St. Nicolas hosts an international scubadiving center. Penfret island hosts a lighthouse, and Cigogne island hosts ruins of a XVIIIth century fort and a laboratory of marine biology. In the past, causting soda was produced from wrack on the archipelago.
The Glénan archipelago is located south of Concarneau, which is one of the main centers of sardine canning industry, and part of the commune of Fouesnant.

Ivan Sache, 4 April 2002


Free State of Glénan

According to Ar Banniel [arb] #18, a short-lived independent Republic of Glénan was proclaimed in August 1926. Ar Banniel shows the flag of the Republic and several proposals in case of an hypothetic restoration of the Republic, without providing historical details.
The flag is white with a blue sardine placed horizontally in the middle of the flag and nearly touching the vertical borders of the flag.

Jaume Ollé, 25 July 2003

Léon Broquet (1869-1935) is a French painter and engraver, having practiced his art mainly in landscape painting, seascapes, history painting. On August 8, 1926, the time of a trip with friends, he celebrated with a group of painters the "Proclamation of the Free state of Glénan". In the book Le Cercle de mer which traces this event, Léon Broquel (for Léon Broquet) proclaims himself the King of the Free State of Glénan (sometimes styled "Republic of Glénan"). The creator of the flag is a watercolor artist named Pellerier. Historical source: Michel Guégen and Louis-Pierre Le Maître, "Le Cercle de Mer, Histoire des Isles de Glenan", Bannalec, July 1981, reported by the Breton Vexillological Society (source).

Olivier Touzeau , 2 December 2021