White and light blue, with three towers on three mountains and the word LIBERTAS, the motto of one of the oldest republics in the world.
Every fact about the flag, each with what it means.
Normal flagFIAV symbol: the form of the flag.
Civil, state and military, on land and at seaFIAV 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 3:4 ratio divided into two horizontal 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.
The first flag on record is from 1465: San Marino commissioned a standard from a workshop…
In 1797, in the midst of the wave of changes brought by the French Revolution
By 1829 a white and blue flag was already flying at the Guaita
A law of 22 July 2011 fixes the ratio
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The flag of San Marino has two horizontal stripes: white above and light blue below. In the centre it bears the coat of arms of the country, with three towers on three mountains and a single word: LIBERTAS, “freedom” in Latin. According to tradition, San Marino was founded in the year 301 and claims to be one of the oldest republics in the world.
The first flag on record is from 1465: San Marino commissioned a standard from a workshop in Florence, in gold, white and a colour called alessandrino. Nobody knows for certain what shade it was; a purple has been suggested and, more recently, a blue.
The white and blue arrived at the end of the eighteenth century. In 1797, in the midst of the wave of changes brought by the French Revolution, the Council of the republic commissioned a scarf, a round cloth badge, in those two colours. By 1829 a white and blue flag was already flying at the Guaita, the oldest of the three towers of Mount Titano.
For almost two centuries each manufacturer drew the coat of arms in their own way, until a law put things in order.
1465
War standard commissioned in Florence. The image is a hypothetical reconstruction by the historian Carlo Malagola.
1829
First record of the white and blue flag, hoisted at the Guaita tower.
19th-20th centuries
The coat of arms is added in the centre, but there is no official model and each flag draws it differently.
2011
A law of 22 July 2011 fixes the ratio, the exact colours and the drawing of the coat of arms.
The colours have a simple reading and the coat of arms sums up the history of the country:
White
peace.
Light blue
freedom.
Three towers on three mountains
the towers Guaita, Cesta and Montale, on the three peaks of Mount Titano, where the capital stands.
Crown
the sovereignty of the country, not a king.
Laurel and oak branches
usually interpreted as glory and strength.
LIBERTAS
the national motto, “freedom”.
San Marino has never had a king, but its coat of arms bears a crown. It does not represent a monarch but the independence of the country, as other historic republics such as Ragusa, present-day Dubrovnik, also did.
Above each tower of the coat of arms there is something like a feather. It is said to represent the metal weather-vanes that crown royal towers.
In 1917, National Geographic magazine published the “merchant flag” of San Marino, a country with no outlet to the sea. No evidence that it ever existed has ever been found.
Where it is and what borders it.
Test what you have read about the flag of San Marino.
Text based on the article “Bandera de San Marino” from the Spanish Wikipedia, published under the licence CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sources consulted:
Flag image: Zscout370, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.
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