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Allier (Department, France)

Flags of Allier - Images by Olivier Touzeau, 26 October 2024

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Administrative data

Code: 03
Region: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (Auvergne until 2014)
Traditional provinces: Bourbonnais, Auvergne, Nivernais
Bordering departments: Cher, Creuse, Loire, Nièvre, Puy-de-Dôme, Saône-et-Loire

Area: 7,340 km²Population (2016): 339,384 inhabitants

Préfecture: Moulins
Sous-préfectures: Montluçon, Vichy
Subdivisions: 3 arrondissements, 19 cantons, 317 municipalities.

The department is named after river Allier (41 km), a tributary to the Loire.

Ivan Sache, 11 November 2009

Flag of Allier

The departmental council of Allier adopted a new logo and graphic identity in march 2022.

The logo, in the shape of a fleur-de-lis, represents a gushing source (rivers, spa towns), from which emerges a gold nugget, symbol of our “Bourbonnais treasures”. In the lower part, the needle refers to the compass and its wind rose, an orientation instrument indicating the direction to follow, the course to maintain [source: Tourism departmental committee]

The department of Allier added the word "Bourbonnais" to its identity, for a better identification of its localization. Bourbonnais is a historic province in the centre of France that corresponds to the modern département of Allier, Since 18 october 2018, the inhabitants of the department are officially called "Bourbonnais".

The department flies a white flag with the logo:
- outdoor, all white with the logo (photo, 2023).
- indoor, a border is added, blue on the lower and fly sides, ochre on the upper and hoist sides: photo (2023), photo (2023), photo (2023), photo (2024).

Olivier Touzeau, 26 October 2024

Former flag of the Departmental Council of Allier

Former flag of the Departmental Council of Allier - Image by Olivier Touzeau

The flag adopted by the Departmental Council of Allier (photo) was horizontally divided white-grayish, after the logo adopted in 2015. The white stripe is charged with the graphic part of the logo (same design as before), while the gray stripe is inscribed with the white lettering "Allier" / "le Département".

Olivier Touzeau, 14 February 2019

Former General Council of Allier

Flag of the former General Council of Allier - Image by Ivan Sache, 22 September 2009

The flag of the former General Council of Allier was white with the Council's logo. The flag was hoisted over the entrance of the General Council's building in Moulins and other places, for instance the bridge over river Allier in Vichy.
The logo of the General Council of Allier was made of a stylized, green- blue-red letter "A", inscribed in a gray, nearly full circle and surmounting the writing "Conseil Général / Département de l'Allier" in gray letters, with an horizontal line separating the two parts of the writing.

Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 22 September 2009

Armored flag of Allier

Armored flags of Allier - Images by Ivan Sache, 22 September 2009

The flag of Allier, as used in the town of Moulins, is red with the coat of arms of the departement. The same flag, but with a blue background, was seen in March 2003, hoisted on the Municipal Technical Center of Vichy.
The coat of arms of Allier was assigned by Jacques Meurgey de Tupigny & Robert Louis in Marques symboliques des départements français, as "Azure a semy of fleurs-de-lis or superimposed by a cotice gules all". The department of Allier having, more or less, the same limits as the traditional province of Bourbonnais, the arms of the province were re-used to represent the department.

Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 22 September 2009

The banner of arms of Bourbonnais is currently flown together with the official logo flag of the Departmental council: photo (2023), photo (2023), photo (2023), photo (2024).

Olivier Touzeau, 26 October 2024