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Flag of Menorca

The senyera of four bars with a walled tower in the centre: the flag of Menorca adds to the bars the emblem of its old Universitat General.

Flag of Menorca
Coat of arms
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The flag, in figures

Every fact about the flag, each with what it means.

Proportions
2:33 wide for every 2 high. 989 flags in the catalogue share it.
Properties
Normal flagFIAV symbol: the form of the flag.
Use
CivilFIAV symbol: who may fly the flag.
Adopted
198314 November 1983 · 43 years ago
Colours
  • yellow
  • red
  • blue
  • white
Reference shades: the official one may vary slightly.
Coat of arms
YesIt carries the coat of arms on the cloth.
Origin
Royal banner
12

Take a closer look

  1. The four bars

  2. 1

    The emblem of the General University

  3. 2

    The two diamonds

How it is described

The flag in the words of vexillology and heraldry.

Vexillological description

It is a rectangular field with a 2:3 ratio, yellow, with four horizontal red stripes: the royal senyera, with nine equal stripes that start and end in yellow. In the centre it carries the emblem of the old Universitat General of Menorca.

Emblem
blue, with curved edges. Inside, a white tower with a weathervane in the shape of a cross, surrounded by a five-sided wall with a door and towers at the corners.
Shields
two small lozenges with the red and yellow bars, at the sides of the weathervane.
Position
the 1983 agreement does not fix whether the emblem goes in the centre or shifted towards the flagpole; both versions are seen.

What it carries

Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.

The full story

How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.

The flag of Menorca brings together two symbols: the four red bars on yellow, the senyera of the Kings of Aragon, and a tower surrounded by walls on blue, the emblem of the old Universitat General of the island. It is the flag of the Consell Insular de Menorca since 1983.

How it came about

In 1983 the Consell Insular created a commission of historians to study what flag the island should have. They concluded that the four bars had been used in Menorca since the 13th century, and that the governors had often put them on their seals in the 16th and 17th centuries.

To tell Menorca apart from the other territories with bars, they recommended adding the emblem of the Universitat General, the old institution that governed the island. The Consell approved the flag on 14 November 1983.

How it has changed

Before the official flag there was already another one with the same elements, arranged in another way.

  1. Pre-autonomous flag of Menorca: blue stripe next to the flagpole with the emblem and the senyera over the rest

    1978-1983

    The pre-autonomous flag: a blue stripe next to the flagpole, with the emblem of the Universitat General, and the senyera over the rest.

  2. Current flag of Menorca: senyera of four bars with the blue emblem of the Universitat General in the centre

    1983

    The current flag: the emblem moves to the centre of the senyera.

What it means

  • Four red bars on yellow

    the royal senyera of the Crown of Aragon, present in Menorca since the 13th century.

  • Walled tower

    the emblem of the Universitat General, the old government of the island, which distinguishes Menorca from other territories with bars.

Fun facts

  1. An emblem that will not sit still

    The 1983 agreement does not say exactly where the emblem goes, so it is seen both in the centre and shifted towards the flagpole.

  2. Older than Mallorca’s

    The pre-autonomous flag, with a blue stripe next to the flagpole, looked a lot like that of Mallorca, which carries a purple canton with a castle.

  3. Photos from 1978

    The pre-autonomous version is known from photographs of 1978, when the Consell General Interinsular was created, the first common government of the islands before the autonomy of the Balearic Islands.

Location

Buy the flag

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How much have you learnt?

Test what you have read about the flag of Menorca.

  1. 1. Which one is the flag of Menorca?

  2. 2. Which of these elements appears on the flag?

  3. 3. What are the proportions (height:width) of the flag?

  4. 4. In which year was the current flag adopted?

Sources

Text based on the article “Bandera de Menorca (Viquipèdia)” from the Spanish Wikipedia, published under the licence CC BY-SA 4.0.

Sources consulted:

Credits

Flag image: Joan M. Borras, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.5.

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