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Laon (Municipality, Aisne, France)

Presentation of Laon
Formerly reported flags of Laon

See also:

Presentation of Laon

Laon (24,066 inhabitants, 4,200 ha) is a city and the prefecture of the Aisne department.

In the time of Julius Caesar there was a Gallic village named Bibrax where the Remis had to meet the onset of the confederated Belgae. Laon was fortified by the Romans, and successively checked the invasions of the Franks, Burgundians, Vandals, Alans and Huns. Archbishop Remigius of Reims, who baptised Clovis, was born in the region of Laon; at the end of the fifth century, he instituted the bishopric of Laon. Laon became one of the principal towns of the kingdom of the Franks, and the possession of it was often disputed. Laon was the principal city of the late Carolingian kings of France, beginning with Louis IV. After the fall of the Carolingians, Laon took the part of Charles of Lorraine, their heir, and Hugh Capet only succeeded in making himself master of the town by the connivance of the bishop, who, in return for this service, was made second ecclesiastical peer of the kingdom.

Early in the twelfth century the communes of France set about emancipating themselves, and the history of the commune of Laon is one of the richest and most varied. The citizens had profited by a temporary absence of Bishop Gaudry to secure from his representatives a communal charter, but he, on his return, purchased from the king of France the revocation of this document, and recommenced his oppressions. The consequence was a revolt, in which the episcopal palace was burnt and the bishop and several of his partisans were put to death on 25 April 1112. The fire spread to Laon Cathedral, and reduced it to ashes. Uneasy at the result of their victory, the rioters went into hiding outside the town, which was anew pillaged by the people of the neighbourhood, eager to avenge the death of their bishop.
French monarchs intervened as needed to settle disputes between the bishop and the townspeople until 1331, when the commune was abolished. In the latter stages of the 1337–1453 Hundred Years' War, Laon was captured by Philip, Duke of Burgundy; he relinquished control to his English allies, who held it until 1429 when it fell to Charles VII of France. The Catholic League used the town as a base during the French Wars of Religion; it was retaken by the former Huguenot Henry IV in August 1594.

At the Revolution (1789) Laon permanently lost its rank as a bishopric. In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, an engineer blew up the powder magazine of the citadel at the moment when the German troops were entering the town. Many people died; and the cathedral and the old episcopal palace were damaged. It surrendered to a German force on 9 September 1870
In the fall of 1914, during World War I, German forces captured the town and held it until the Allied offensive in the summer of 1918.

Olivier Touzeau, 18 December 2025

Formerly reported flags of Laon

Flag and banner formerly reported - Images by Olivier Touzeau, 18 December 2025

No flag currently in use. A flag of Picardie can be observed in the mayor's office: video, 2020.

Pascal Vagnat and Arnaud Leroy reported in 2010 a bicolore flag consisting of two vertical stripes, yellow and blue, with the town's coat of arms in the center. The colors are believed to have originated
from a variant of the town's coat of arms:
http://emblemes.free.fr/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1355:drapeaux-de-laon&catid=21004:laon&Itemid=242
No photographic evidence.
The arms of Laon are blazoned: Argent three martlets sable, on a chief Azure three fleurs-de-lis Or.

A banner made of two vertical blue and white stripes (colours from the town's coat of arms) was observed in the book "L'Aisne" by Montagu, Jean-Yves; Guillard, Jacques, éditions de La Martinière, Paris, 1993, photo p.67

Olivier Touzeau, 18 December 2025