Hautes-Alpes (Department, France)

Last modified: 2022-03-03 by ivan sache
Keywords: hautes-alpes |
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• Administrative data
• Flag of the former General Council
• Municipalities
  • Gap
  • Abriès-Ristolas
  • La Bâtie-Neuve
  • Briançon
  • Laragne-Montéglin
  • Orcières
• Intermunicipal authorities

See also:

• France
• France: Metropolitan departments
  • Clickable map of France (departments)

Administrative data

Code: 05
Region: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Traditional province: Dauphiné
Bordering departments: Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Drôme, Isère, Savoie
Bordering country: Italy (Region Piedmont)

Area: 5,549 km²
Population (2016): 141,107 inhabitants

Préfecture: Gap
Sous-préfecture: Briançon
Subdivisions: 2 arrondissements, 15 cantons, 164 municipalities.

The deparment is named "Upper-Alps" after the Alps mountains.
The canton of Barcillonnette was transferred to the department from the department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in 1811.
The Treaty of Paris (10 February 1947), fixing the border between France and Italy, allocated Mount Thabor and Mount Chaberton to France, moving the border a few kilometers eastwards. General de Gaulle, then President of the Provisory Government, insisted so much on the annexation of Mount and Fort Chaberton that Georges Bidault, Minister of the Foreign Affairs, coined the word "chabertonisme", as the trend by the General to stick to insignificant details slowing down the negociation process between France and Italy.

Ivan Sache, 11 November 2009

Flag of the former General Council

Flag of the General Council of Hautes-Alpes - Image by Ivan Sache, 23 September 2009

The General Council of Hautes-Alpes used a white flag with the Council's logo in the center.
The logo, unveiled on 29 September 2003, uses red and yellow shades to symbolize the department's nickname, "The Latin Alps". The logo is made of a red square with convex sides, featuring an ibex standing on a lavender field, in front of a white mountain surmounted by a yellow sun. Below is the writing "Hautes Alpes" (big black letters) / Conseil Geacute;néral (smaller, red letters).

Former flag of the General Council of Hautes-Alpes - Image by Ivan Sache, 23 September 2009

Before 2003, the General Council used a white flag with another logo, mostly blue, white and yellow.

Pascal Vagnat, Dominique Cureau & Ivan Sache, 23 September 2009