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Fontainebleau (Municipality, Seine-et-Marne, France)

Flag of Fontainebleau - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 6 July 2021

Presentation of Fontainebleau
Flag of Fontainebleau
- Former variant flags of Fontainebleau

See also:

Presentation of Fontainebleau

Fontainebleau (15,945 inhabitants in 2021; 17,205 ha) is a commune located 55.5 kilometres south-southeast of the centre of Paris. It is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and has the largest land area in the Île-de-France region.

This hamlet was endowed with a royal hunting lodge and a chapel by Louis VII in the middle of the twelfth century. A century later, Louis IX (Saint Louis) had a country house and a hospital constructed there. Philip the Fair was born there in 1268 and died there in 1314. In all, thirty-four sovereigns, from Louis VI the Fat, (1081–1137) to Napoleon III (1808–1873), spent time at Fontainebleau. The connection between the town of Fontainebleau and the French monarchy was reinforced with the transformation of the royal country house into a true royal palace, the Palace of Fontainebleau. This was accomplished by king Francis I (1494–1547), who, in the largest of his many construction projects, reconstructed, expanded, and transformed the royal château at Fontainebleau into a residence that became his favourite, as well as the residence of his mistress, Anne, duchess of Étampes.

From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, every monarch, from Francis I to Louis XV, made important renovations at the Palace of Fontainebleau. On 18 October 1685, Louis XIV signed the Edict of Fontainebleau there. Also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, this royal fiat reversed the permission granted to the Huguenots in 1598 to worship publicly in specified locations and hold certain other privileges. The 1762 Treaty of Fontainebleau, a secret agreement between France and Spain concerning the Louisiana territory in North America, was concluded here. Also, preliminary negotiations, held before the 1763 Treaty of Paris
was signed, ending the Seven Years' War, were at Fontainebleau.

On 29 October 1807, Manuel Godoy, chancellor to the Spanish king, Charles IV and Napoleon signed the Treaty of Fontainebleau, which authorized the passage of French troops through Spanish territories so that they might invade Portugal. On 20 June 1812, Pope Pius VII arrived at the château of Fontainebleau, after a secret transfer from Savona, accompanied by his personal physician, Balthazard Claraz. In poor health, the Pope was the prisoner of Napoleon, and he remained in his genteel prison at Fontainebleau for nineteen months. From June 1812 until 23 January 1814, the Pope never left his apartments. On 20 April 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte, shortly before his first abdication, bid farewell to the Old Guard, the renowned grognards (gripers) who had served with him since his first campaigns, in the "White Horse Courtyard" (la cour du Cheval Blanc) at the Palace of Fontainebleau. The 1814 Treaty of Fontainebleau stripped Napoleon of his powers (but not his title as Emperor of the French) and sent him into exile on Elba.

Until the 19th century, Fontainebleau was a village and a suburb of Avon. Later, it developed as an independent residential city. The palace became a national museum in 1927 and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981. In July and August 1946, the town hosted the Franco-Vietnamese Conference, intended to find a solution to the long-contested struggle for Vietnam's independence from France, but the conference ended in failure. Fontainebleau also hosted the general staff of the Allied Forces in Central Europe (Allied Forces Center or AFCENT) and the land forces command (LANDCENT); the air forces command (AIRCENT) was located nearby at Camp Guynemer. These facilities were in place from the inception of NATO until France's partial withdrawal from NATO in 1967 when the United States returned those bases to French control. NATO moved AFCENT to Brunssum in the Netherlands and AIRCENT to Ramstein in West Germany.

The forest of Fontainebleau surrounds the town and several nearby villages. It is protected by France's Office National des Forêts, and it is recognised as a French national park. It is managed in order that its wild plants and trees, such as the rare service tree of Fontainebleau, and its populations of birds, mammals, and butterflies, can be conserved. It is a former royal hunting park often visited by hikers and horse riders. The forest is also
well regarded for bouldering and is particularly popular among climbers, as it is the biggest developed area of that kind in the world.

Olivier Touzeau, 6 July 2021

Flag of Fontainebleau

The curent flag is white with the coat of arms and the name of the commune below: photo (2011), photo (2018), photo (2020).

The coat of arms of Fontainebleau is blazoned:
Tierced per fess, 1. Or an imperial eagle Sable, 2. Azure a wavy fess Argent, 3. Argent a salamander enflamed gules; on a canton azure the letter N beneath a radiant star or.
(Cities of the Empire fell into three classes, and napoleonic heraldry attributed this canton to Second class cities). The second part of the tierce has more often two wavy fesses Argent.

The salamander was Francis I's badge. Fontainebleau was one of Napoleon's favorite residences, whence the canton and the eagle. The wavy fess alludes to the name of the town and the word "spring".
Fontainebleau was recorded in the Latinised forms Fons Bleaudi, Fons Bliaudi, and Fons Blaadi in the 12th and 13th centuries, as Fontem blahaud in 1137, as Fontaine belle eau (folk etymology "fountain of beautiful water") in the 16th century, as Fontainebleau and Fontaine belle eau in 1630, and as the invented, fanciful Latin Fons Bellaqueus in the 17th century Contrary to the folk etymology, the name comes from the medieval compound noun of fontaine, meaning spring (fountainhead) and blitwald, consisting of the Germanic personal name Blit and the Germanic word for forest.

Olivier Touzeau, 6 July 2021

Former variant flags of Fontainebleau

Former flags of Fontainebleau, left, observed in 2016/17, right, in 2012 - Images by Olivier Touzeau, 6 July 2021

A former version of the flag of Fontainebleau observed in 2016 and 2017 had only the coat of arms without lettering: photo (2016), photo (2017).

A previous version observed in 2012 had only the shield of the coat of arms without ornaments: photo (2012), photo (2012).

Olivier Touzeau, 6 July 2021