Flag of Serbia

Three stripes, red, blue and white, with a two-headed eagle: a Slavic tricolour whose order, according to one legend, comes from turning the Russian one upside down.

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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: State, on land and at seaFIAV symbol: who may fly the flag.
Adopted: 201011 November 2010 · 16 years ago
Colours: red
blue
white
Reference shades: the official one may vary slightly.
Coat of arms: YesIt carries the coat of arms on the cloth.

Take a closer look

The three stripes
1
The crown
2
The two-headed eagle
3
The cross on the shield

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 with three equal horizontal stripes: red above, blue in the middle and white below —the Pan-Slavic order, inverted with respect to Russia—.

Stripes: three equal horizontal ones: red above, blue in the middle and white below.
Arms: towards the hoist (its centre at a seventh of the length): a crowned white double-headed eagle, with a red shield on its breast bearing a white cross and four inverted C letters, one in each quarter.
Civil variant: it is used without the arms.

What it carries

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

Its history in dates

Every date in its story, at a glance.

1281
Red and blue appear early in Serbian history: a document of 1281 already speaks of a red and blue…
1835
In 1835 the first Serbian Constitution fixed a red
1839
In 1839 a decree of the Ottoman sultan established the order used today: red above
2010
In 2010 its drawing and exact colours are fixed

The full story

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

The flag of Serbia has three horizontal stripes: red, blue and white. The state version also carries the coat of arms, a white two-headed eagle, shifted towards the flagpole. There is also a version without it, and both are official.

How it came about

Red and blue appear early in Serbian history: a document of 1281 already speaks of a red and blue cloth flag from the treasury of a Serbian king.

The modern tricolour was born in the nineteenth century, when Serbia was an autonomous principality within the Ottoman Empire. In 1835 the first Serbian Constitution fixed a red, white and blue flag, but it lasted only a few weeks: Russia and the Ottoman Empire pressured until Prince Miloš Obrenović suspended it. In 1839 a decree of the Ottoman sultan established the order used today: red above, blue in the middle and white below.

How it has changed

The three colours have been kept. What changes is the symbol in the centre, depending on the regime.

Klačko · CC0
1835
The first Constitution chooses red, white and blue, in a different order. It is abandoned the same year.
Guilherme Paula · CC BY-SA 3.0
1882-1918
Serbia is now an independent kingdom and the state flag bears the great royal arms.
User:CrnaGora · Public domain
1947-1992
Within communist Yugoslavia, the coat of arms is replaced by a red star.
Duja · Public domain
1992-2004
The star is removed and the tricolour stands alone.
2004
The eagle’s coat of arms returns. In 2010 its drawing and exact colours are fixed.

What it means

The law does not explain what each colour represents, but where they come from is known:

Red, blue and white
the colours shared by many Slavic peoples, such as the Russians, with whom Serbia had close ties.
White two-headed eagle
the emblem of the medieval Serbian kings.
Cross of the shield
a white cross with four C-shaped figures around it, a very old Serbian symbol.
Crown
it recalls that Serbia was a kingdom.

Fun facts

The Russian flag, reversed
According to a very repeated story, Prince Miloš proposed using the Russian flag, white, blue and red. The Russian consul did not like the idea, and the prince replied that they could hang it upside down. It is a legend: no document confirms it.
A festival for the flag
Since 2020 Serbia celebrates 15 September each year as the Day of Unity, Freedom and the National Flag, in memory of a Serbian and French victory in the First World War.
The coat of arms everywhere
In theory the version with the coat of arms is for the state, but in practice it is seen in restaurants, stadiums and private houses.