Three vertical stripes in green, white and red, born in 1797 inspired by the French flag and ended up becoming the symbol of Italy.
Every fact about the flag, each with what it means.
Normal flagFIAV symbol: the form of the flag.
Civil, state and militaryFIAV 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 rectangular field with a 2:3 ratio and three equal vertical stripes.
Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.
Every date in its story, at a glance.
In 1796 Napoleon’s army reached Italy
On 7 January 1797, in Reggio Emilia
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The flag of Italy has three equal vertical stripes: green, white and red. The Italians call it il Tricolore. It is almost identical to that of Mexico, which is distinguished by the coat of arms in the centre.
In the late eighteenth century the ideas of the French Revolution reached Italy, which was then divided into many states. Its supporters copied the French tricolour, but changed the blue for green. The most accepted explanation is that the green and white were the colours of the uniform of the Milanese militia, and the white and red those of the coat of arms of the city.
In 1796 Napoleon’s army reached Italy. That year, the Lombard Legion, a unit of Italian soldiers in his service, received a green, white and red standard. On 7 January 1797, in Reggio Emilia, the Cispadane Republic adopted the tricolour as its own flag. The proposal was by Giuseppe Compagnoni, remembered as the “father of the Tricolore”. It was the first time that an Italian state made it its own.
The colours have never changed; the direction of the stripes and the coat of arms have.
1797
The Cispadane Republic adopts it with the stripes horizontal.
1798
The stripes become vertical. After the fall of Napoleon it is banned in much of Italy and becomes the symbol of those who want to unify the country.
1861-1946
The Kingdom of Italy is born, and uses it with the coat of arms of the royal family, the House of Savoy, in the centre.
1946
The Italians vote for the republic and the coat of arms disappears: from 19 June the flag is only green, white and red.
There is no official meaning, but there are two popular readings:
Green
hope, or the meadows of Italy.
White
faith, or the snow of the Alps.
Red
charity, or the blood spilled in the wars of independence.
None of them explains its real origin: the colours of Milan and the French model.
The oldest document mentioning the Italian tricolour dates from May 1796 and is kept in Cherasco, in Piedmont. In it, someone struck out the word “green” and wrote “blue” over it, the French colour.
Since 1996, Italy celebrates the Festa del Tricolore every 7 January, in memory of the Reggio Emilia session of 1797. The hall where the vote was held is now called the Sala del Tricolore.
In 2003 official flags appeared with darker colours and there were complaints. The Government spoke of a technical error and in 2006 fixed the official shades: fern green, brilliant white and scarlet red.
Where it is and what borders it.
Test what you have read about the flag of Italy.
Text based on the article “Bandera de Italia” from the Spanish Wikipedia, published under the licence CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sources consulted:
Flag image: See below., Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.
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