Flag of Gibraltar

The flag of Gibraltar is white and red, with a red castle of three towers and a golden key hanging from its door. Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory at the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula, and it is the only one of those territories whose flag does not carry the Union Jack.

How it came about

The drawing is much older than the flag. It comes from the arms the Catholic Monarchs granted the city on 10 July 1502, when Gibraltar belonged to Castile.

In 1704, during the War of the Spanish Succession, an English and Dutch fleet took the Rock, and in 1713 the Treaty of Utrecht ceded it to Great Britain. Since then its sovereignty has been disputed: Spain claims it, and the United Kingdom maintains that it will not change it without the agreement of the Gibraltarians. During the colonial period, the official flag was a British blue flag with the arms, while the castle and key on white and red were used by tradition.

How it has changed

The castle and the key have always been present; what changed was the flag that carried them.

1. 1502

   The Catholic Monarchs grant Gibraltar its arms: a red castle on white and a golden key on red.

2. 

   1875-1939

   As a British colony, the official flag is blue, with the Union Jack in the corner and the castle inside a white circle.

3. 

   1939-1982

   The arms lose the white circle. This blue flag continued to be used on Government vessels until 1999.

4. 

   1982

   The castle and key on white and red, recognised in 1966, are regulated as the flag of Gibraltar on 8 November 1982.

What it means

• Red castle

  the fortress of Gibraltar. It does not resemble any specific castle on the Rock.

• Golden key

  the importance of Gibraltar as a place of passage. For the Muslims and the Castilians it was the “key of Spain”; for the British, the “key of the Mediterranean”.

• White and red

  the colours of the original arms.

Fun facts

1. Without the British flag

   The flags of the other British Overseas Territories carry the Union Jack in a corner. Gibraltar’s does not: it is the arms of the city, elongated.

2. The document is in Spain

   The original 1502 parchment is kept in the municipal archive of San Roque, in Cádiz. That town was founded by the inhabitants who left Gibraltar in 1704, and they took the archives with them.

3. A festival in white and red

   Every 10 September, Gibraltar National Day, many neighbours hang the flag and dress in white and red. It recalls the 1967 referendum, in which 12,138 voters chose to remain linked to the United Kingdom and 44 to move to Spanish sovereignty.