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Carnac (Municipality, Morbihan, France)

Karnag

Flag of Carnac - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 9 January 2022

Presentation of Carnac
Flag of Carnac

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Presentation of Carnac

Carnac (4,231 inhabitants in 2020; 3,271 ha) is a commune in the Morbihan department.

Carnac is famous as the site of more than 10,000 Neolithic standing stones (menhirs). The stones were hewn from local rock and erected by the pre-Celtic people of Brittany during the Neolithic period which lasted from around 4500 BC until 2000 BC. The precise date of the stones is difficult to ascertain as little dateable material has been found beneath them, but the site's main phase of activity is commonly attributed to c. 3300 BC.
The Saint-Michel tumulus was built between 5000 and 3400 BC. Basically, it is 125 meters long, 60 meters wide, and 12 meters high. It has needed 35,000 cubic meters of stones and earth. It is a tomb for members of an elite.
The alignments in Carnac are divided into several distinct groups. The Ménec alignments group together 12 converging rows of menhirs that stretch for more than a kilometer, with the remains of stone circles at each end. The largest stones in the west are up to 4 m high; their average height decreases along the alignment to reach a height of 60 cm in the extreme east. This pattern is repeated in the Kermario Alignments a little to the east. Other smaller alignments dot the site, such as Kerlescan and Petit Ménec. A legend, which has no historical meaning, says that Saint Cornély, pursued by Roman soldiers, turned around and froze them in stones, called menhirs today.

The current Saint-Cornély parish church was built in the 17th century; its bell tower dates from 1639.
In 1864, La Trinité-sur-Mer and its port were separated from the commune to create their own commune. The fishermen found the church in Saint-Cornély to be too far from the port, and had one built in a more convenient location. La Trinité-sur-Mer thus became both a parish and a separate commune.
In 1903, a seaside resort was created on the old salt flats, developing extensively through the 1950s to create the split Carnac of today: Carnac-ville and Carnac-plage.
Since the end of World War II, Carnac has become a very popular site for tourists.

Olivier Touzeau, 9 January 2022

Flag of Carnac

The flag of Carnac (photo, 2016; photo, 2016) is diagonally divided from upper hoist to lower fly red over blue, withe the coat of arms in the center and the name of the communeun blue letters vertically at the fly.

The coat of arms of Carnac is blazoned: Azure a bend Gules charged with six/ semé of menhirs Or, between in chief a sun Or and in base a ship gules, sail and flag Ermine (or sail Ermine and flag Gules).
In French, the bend and the ship are described as "cousu": this term is peculiar to French heraldry, and permits the elements it qualifies to break the rule of tinctures and to be colour over colour, or metal over metal.
The creation of a coat of arms for the municipality was decided by the municipal council on June 23, 1973 and entrusted to the heraldist Loïc Ermoy.

Olivier Touzeau, 9 January 2022