The flag of Basilicata (Italy) bears a shield with four blue waves: the four rivers of the region, chosen in 1973 for their elegant simplicity.
Every fact about the flag, each with what it means.
Normal flagFIAV symbol: the form of the flag.
CivilFIAV symbol: who may fly the flag.YesIt carries the coat of arms on the cloth.The flag in the words of vexillology and heraldry.
It is a blue field —the cloth of the flag —with a 2:3 ratio, with the coat of arms of the region in the centre.
Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The flag of Basilicata is a blue field with the coat of arms of the region in the centre: a white shield with a gold border and four stacked blue waves.
Basilicata is a region in southern Italy. Its flag was approved on 22 June 1973.
The four waves of the coat of arms are the four rivers of the region. It is a design with very few elements, and the description itself points out that it was chosen for its simplicity.
It has never changed. It was approved in 1973 and there are no documented later modifications.
Blue
the background of the field, with no divisions. The colour reaches all four edges.
Coat of arms
white, with a gold border, in the centre.
Four blue waves
stacked, one above the other, inside the coat of arms. They are the four rivers of the region.
No other figures
no stripes, no text, no other emblems.
The shield carries blue waves on a white ground, and the field is blue. The colour of the shield and that of the field match, so the arms seem to float on a ground of the same tone as one of their figures.
The only figure of the shield is four stacked lines of water. It is a flag that tells the hydrography of the region in five strokes: four waves and a gold border.
The flag was approved in 1973 with a criterion of restraint: no complex traditional heraldry, no history to represent. It is one of the first regional flags to be designed rather than inherited.
Test what you have read about the flag of Basilicata.
Sources consulted:
Flag image: F l a n k e r, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.
