Occitan cross

File:Cathar cross.svg

The Occitan cross ({{langx|oc|crotz occitana}} {{IPA|oc|ˈkɾuts utsiˈtanɔ||oc-Crotz occitana.ogg}}), also called cross of Occitania ({{lang|oc|crotz d'Occitània}}), cross of Languedoc ({{lang|oc|crotz de Lengadòc}}) or cross of Toulouse ({{lang|oc|crotz de Tolosa}}),{{efn|After the coat of arms of the counts of Toulouse.

"The first known Cross of Toulouse is shown on Count Raimond VI's seal, dated from 1211. Then widely used all over Languedoc, the Cross of Toulouse appeared on the municipal arms of Toulouse and the provincial arms of Languedoc in the 14th century. Pierre Saliès (Archistra, December 1994) claims that the Cross of Toulouse is a modification of the Latin Cross, attributed to Count Raimond VI. In 1099, Raimond VI took part to the reconquest of Jerusalem with the Crusaders. As a Crusaders' chief, Raimond would have adapted a cross slightly different from the Latin Cross bore by the low-rank Crusaders. According to this theory, the edges of the arms of the cross were cut into two pieces and curved. To be fixed on a shield, such a cross required twelve rivets. The design would have progressively evolved towards the Cross of Toulouse." (Ivan Sache, 24 April 2003, [http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-31-tl.html crwflags.com])}} heraldically "cross cleché, pommettée and voided", is a heraldic cross, today chiefly used as a symbol of Occitania.

In the Chanson de la Croisade Albigeoise, it goes by the name of "Raymondine cross" ({{lang|oc|crotz ramondenca}} or {{lang|oc|ramondina}}).La Cançon de la crosada, laisse 109 (v. 2300), Per la crotz Ramondenca que contral vent resplant, see

L. Macé in: Marcus Graham Bull, Catherine Léglu (eds.), The World of Eleanor of Aquitaine: Literature and Society in Southern France Between the Eleventh and Thirteenth Centuries (2005), [https://books.google.com/books?id=TXjvB0034DkC&pg=PA152 p. 152].

The design was probably first used in the coat of arms of the counts of Forcalquier (in modern Provence), in the 12th century,{{cn|date=June 2018}} and by the counts of Toulouse in their capacity as Marquises of Provence, on 13th century coins and seals.

It later spread to the other provinces of Occitania, namely Provence, Guyenne, Gascony, Dauphiné, Auvergne and Limousin.

A yellow Occitan cross on a blood-red background with the seven-armed golden star of the Felibritge makes up the flag of modern-day Occitania. It can also be found in the emblems of Midi-Pyrénées, Languedoc-Roussillon (now both part of the administrative region of Occitania, which also features the cross in its symbols) and Hautes-Alpes, among many others, as well as in cemeteries and at country crossroads.

The blazon of the modern emblem is "gules, a cross cleché/pattée pommettée voided" or "in a red field, a gold cross with keys/paws/spheres/apples, in outline" ({{langx|oc|de golas a la crotz voidada, clechada/patèa e pometada d'aur}}),{{cn|date=June 2018}} also described as "cross pattée botonnée", "cross pommettée", "cross toulouse",Thomas Robson, The British Herald (1830), [https://books.google.com/books?id=AXIUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP36 p. 336]. or "cross fleury voided/in skeleton".Catherine Lucy Wilhelmina Powlett Duchess of Cleveland, The Battle Abbey Roll vol. 3 (1889), p. 182.

History

File:Blason Languedoc.svg

File:Carte provence 1125.png, county of Forcalquier and marquisat de Provence.]]

The Occitan cross probably first appears in the coat of arms of the counts of Forcalquier and then during the reign of Raymond V, count of Toulouse, as a particular description of his official seal dated from 1165 corroborates.{{cn|date=June 2018}}

It soon spreads across the whole south-western part of today's France and is even spotted in various towns up north throughout the 12th century. Several interpretations have been proposed for the cross, often stressing the symbolic side of it and leaving aside the fact that "heraldry is not a science of symbols, but one of emblems" (M. Pastoureau{{cn|date=June 2018}}).

In 1950, Henri Rolland suggested that the origin of the Occitan cross be traced back to the marquisate of Provence, north of the Durance, more precisely the town of Venasque.{{cite web|url=http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-31-tl.html|title=Toulouse (Municipality, Haute-Garonne, France)|publisher=crwflags.com}}{{not in source|date=June 2018}}

In 1966, in the L'Auta review, Roger Camboulives voices his idea that the Occitan cross derives from a sun cross and perhaps the Nestorian cross found in China's Turkestan. It would have arrived in Toulouse via northern Italy and Provence, probably sometime in the 10th century. Camboulives in 1980 again emphasizes the role played by the Visigoths in the presence of small spheres at the end of the arms of the cross: they could represent the twelve houses of the zodiac.{{cn|date=June 2018}}

In 1986, Jean-Yves Royer (in Le Pays de Forcalquier) claims that the cross was originally from Provence but admits that Henri Rolland's theory was flawed and built around wrong dates. Royer concludes that Rolland possibly mistook the Occitan cross with that of Forcalquier.{{cn|date=June 2018}}

He draws evidence most notably from two crosses carved in the lid of a sarcophagus found in the small Alpes-de-Haute-Provence commune of Ganagobie.

Air Toulouse adopted the Occitan cross as trademark until mid-1990s.

Pierre Saliès in 1994Archistra magazine,{{huh|date=June 2018}} December 1994 once again maintains that the cross is from Toulouse and is the fruit of successive local evolutions, possibly from the Jerusalem cross.

Two years after, in L'Auta (#612), Jean Rocacher confirms that the Occitan cross "is first the own emblem of the old county of Venasque, later torn between the houses of Toulouse and Forcalquier."

In 2000, Laurent Macé (in Les Comtes de Toulouse et leur entourage) claims that the Occitan cross became the counts' emblem after Raymond IV took part in the First Crusade. It would originate from Constantinople.

Macé indicates that its pattern was first found in the Byzantine area and spread across Western Europe through Italy and Provence. The crosses of Venasque and Forcalquier would thus share the same origin, though one was not inspired by the other.

Later in the same year, Bertran de la Farge (in La Croix occitane) locates the original Occitan cross somewhere in the marquisate of Provence, probably Venasque. He argues it could be a mixture of the Constantinople cross and the Coptic cross, which was brought to Provence by monks and maybe also through Saint Maurice.

File:Armorial de Gilles Le Bouvier - BNF Fr4985 f21r.jpg|15th-century depiction of the arms of Toulouse as a voided cross potent.

File:Palazzo mozzi, stemma mozzi.JPG| Late medieval depiction as the coat of arms of the Mozzi family of Florence, in Palazzo Mozzi.

File:LDAM (f. 041) Conde de Tolouse.jpg|Arms of the count of Toulouse (1509)

File:Armoiries de toulouse.jpg|In the Toulouse city arms (1515)

File:Blason de Toulouse - Porte Bachelier - Cour Henri IV.jpg|Toulouse arms from the time of Henry IV of France (r. 1572–1610)

File:Marguerite Delphine de Valbelle.JPG|18th-century depiction in the coat of arms of Marguerite-Delphine de Valbelle, lady of Tourves (d.- 1784), as part of the Valbelle family coat of arms.

File:besièrs17march2007.JPG in Béziers on March 17, 2007]]

Modern uses

File:Flag of Occitania (with star).svg]]

The Occitan cross can be found on a number of flags, coats of arms, emblems and logos. Here follows a non-exhaustive list of occurrences:

=Regions and provinces=

Flag and emblem of Occitania
Flag of the former Languedoc-Roussillon
Flag and emblem of the former Midi-Pyrénées
Flag of the Aran Valley

=Départements=

Coat of arms of Aude and the General Council of Aude
Coat of arms of Gard
Coat of arms of Hautes-Alpes
Coat of arms of Haute-Garonne
Coat of arms of Hérault
Coat of arms of Tarn
Coat of arms of Tarn-et-Garonne

=Cities and towns=

File:Toulouse-Capitole2.JPG (Place du Capitole, Toulouse)]]

Coat of arms of Ansignan
Coat of arms of Buoux{{cite web |url=http://www.vaucluse.fr/uploads/Externe/COM_BLASON_39_1177072888.gif |title=Archived copy |access-date=2007-08-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018232419/http://www.vaucluse.fr/uploads/Externe/COM_BLASON_39_1177072888.gif |archive-date=2007-10-18 }}
Coat of arms of Céreste
Coat of arms of Colomiers
Coat of arms of Fanjeaux
Coat of arms of Gigondas{{cite web |url=http://www.vaucluse.fr/uploads/Externe/COM_BLASON_21_1177072888 |title=CG84 Vaucluse - actions sociales, subventions, entreprises et vie en Vaucluse - Conseil général de Vaucluse |access-date=2007-08-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20110721024220/http://www.vaucluse.fr/uploads/Externe/COM_BLASON_21_1177072888 |archive-date=2011-07-21 }}
Coat of arms of Laissac
Coat of arms of Llupia
Coat of arms of Méthamis{{cite web |url=http://www.vaucluse.fr/uploads/Externe/COM_BLASON_98_1177072888.gif |title=Archived copy |access-date=2007-08-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071019041135/http://www.vaucluse.fr/uploads/Externe/COM_BLASON_98_1177072888.gif |archive-date=2007-10-19 }}
Coat of arms of Moissac
Coat of arms of Monclar (impaled){{what|date=February 2017|reason=Can anyone identify the arms in the dexter part?}}
Coat of arms of Port-la-Nouvelle
Coat of arms of Saint-Didier
Coat of arms of Sévérac-le-Château
Coat of arms of the City of Toulouse
Coat of arms of Travaillan{{cite web|url=http://vexil.prov.free.fr/aygues/travaillan.gif |title=Data |website=vexil.prov.free.fr |format=GIF}}
Coat of arms of Venasque{{cite web |url=http://www.vaucluse.fr/Commun/imageselus/com_blason_119_1070549084.gif|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070307052105/http://www.vaucluse.fr/Commun/imageselus/com_blason_119_1070549084.gif|url-status=dead|archive-date=2007-03-07|title= Data |website=www.vaucluse.fr|format=GIF}}
Flag of Vianne{{cite web |url=http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/images/f/fr-47-vi.gif|title= Data |website=www.crwflags.com|format=GIF}}
Coat of arms of Villeneuve-d'Aveyron
Coat of arms of Villefranche-de-Lauragais
Coat of arms of Villefranche-de-Rouergue

=Miscellaneous=

Logo of Toulouse FC
Place du Capitole, Toulouse{{cite web |url=http://www.toulouse.fr/IMG/jpg/art988_2.jpg |title=Archived copy |access-date=2007-05-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927231847/http://www.toulouse.fr/IMG/jpg/art988_2.jpg |archive-date=2007-09-27 }} {{coord|43.604389|1.443361|format=dms|scale:1000}})
Coat of arms of La Tour d'Auvergne
Street signs in Toulouse
Roadsigns in Limousin{{Cite web |url=http://ieo.lemosin.free.fr/paneus/p8.jpg |title=Archived copy |access-date=2007-06-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081112195941/http://ieo.lemosin.free.fr/paneus/p8.jpg |archive-date=2008-11-12 |url-status=dead }}
Sign of the Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins du Languedoc{{cite web|url=http://www.languedoc-wines.com/|title=L'AOC Languedoc fête ses 30 ans !|work=languedoc-wines.com|access-date=31 December 2016}}

Notes

References

Sources

Les Comtes de Toulouse et leur entourage: Rivalités, alliances et jeux de pouvoir XIIe-XIIIe siècles by Laurent Macé (éd. Privat){{year needed|date=June 2018}}
La Croix occitane by Bertran de la Farge (éd. Loubatières){{year needed|date=June 2018}}
Le Pays de Forcalquier by Jean-Yves Royer (éd. Équinoxe){{year needed|date=June 2018}}

External links

Category:Cross symbols

Category:Crosses in heraldry

Category:Occitania

Occitania