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Ferden commune (Valais/Wallis canton, Switzerland)

See also:

Ferden

image by Pascal Gross

Per fess by a bar wavy Argent, in chief Gules a Cross bottony Argent and in base Vert the Host Argent radiating Or issuant from a Cup Or.

Željko Heimer, 29 April 2000

Old Swiss Communal Flag

Photo from Martin Karner, 8 January 2005

Last September (2004) I took part in an excursion of the Swiss Society for Vexillology. We went to the "Lötschental" in the Valais (German: Wallis) canton to have a look at the old "communal flags" (Gemeindefahnen). The communes of the Lötschental have been united in one parish several centuries ago, that's why there's also a parochial flag ("Talschaftsfahne" / Talschaft = community of the valley). The flags that have been presented to us (it was the first time ever that they have been together on the same place) are different from the official communal flags. They're religious flags that are presented to the public only three times a year on occasion of certain Christian and special Catholic holidays (the Lötschental is Catholic like the whole Valais). During our visit a man from one of those villages (Ferden; today he lives in Berne) joined us and asked if we could help him to find the owner of a certain flag. I offered him to place his request on the Francovex list because the owner is supposed to live in France. Some time later this man sent me photos of the flag and photocopies of the correspondence which took place between February 1991 and January 1993 with follow-ups until 2003. Because there was no answer on Francovex up to now I expand the search to this page, maybe the searched flag has made its way outside the francophone area.

I reported the previous search for this flag in details on Francovex which I don't repeat now. Whoever is interested may contact me for details. I'm also in possession of the letter correspondence which report the research about the origins of this flag (the research was made by the vexillologist Michel Rochat from Geneva). This flag is one of the above mentioned old religious communal flags of the Ferden commune (it's not known how this flag left Ferden. The communal archives have not been searched yet for this). The writings on the flag are "G.F." (=Gemeinde Ferden) and "1788". To make it short: Michel Rochat was one of two middlemen between the owner of the flag and the Ferden commune who wanted to buy back its old flag. During the negotiations the connections suddenly broke and the commune hadn't anymore a connection to the owner who lived in Paris. From unknown reasons Michel Rochat didn't want to communicate anymore about this flag and its owner. Last autumn there was the last try to speak with him on this matter but this time it was his mental weakness (due to his high age) which disabled him to remember. We know that the Ferden commune is still interested to buy this flag, that's why we try on this way to find out something about its whereabouts. I got two photos from 1992/93 in a not too good quality above. One of the photos shows the owner and two women. Please mail us if you know something about these persons and/or the flag. Thank you for your help.
Martin Karner, 8 January 2005

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