A white fasces on green: St Gallen commissioned its emblems in 1803 without copying anything medieval, and the axe was last redesigned in 2011.
Every fact about the flag, each with what it means.
Normal flagFIAV symbol: the form of the flag.
CivilFIAV 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 square field with a 1:1 ratio in green, with a white fasces in the centre.
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 canton was created in 1798 for the Helvetic Republic and reorganised in 1803 with…
It looks like an ancient symbol, but it is an invention of 1803: the canton was born alongside…
The official drawing has been retouched seven times —in 1843 the weapon changed from a halberd…
Axe: since 1981 it is understood as a tool of justice
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The flag of St Gallen shows a white axe inside a bundle of bound rods, on a green ground. It looks like an ancient symbol, but it is an invention of 1803: the canton was born alongside its flag, inheriting nothing from the old city.
The canton was created in 1798 for the Helvetic Republic and reorganised in 1803 with the Act of Mediation. The governor David von Gonzenbach then designed the coat of arms and the flag with no reference to any medieval past. He chose the fasces: the bundle of rods with an axe that Roman lictors carried before the magistrates as a sign of authority. The green was the colour of the revolution and of freedom, shared with Thurgovia and Vaud, created at the same time. The eight rods represented the eight original districts: a single stick can be broken, a bundle cannot.
The official drawing has been retouched seven times —in 1843 the weapon changed from a halberd to a battle axe; in 1946 the drawing was flattened and only five of the eight rods are visible— up to the resolution of 17 August 2010, in force since 1 March 2011, which removed the rear point of the axe and fixed the green as Pantone 355 C.
Green
the revolutionary colour of 1803, a sign of liberty; today defined as Pantone 355 C.
Bundle of rods
authority, justice, sovereignty and union of the canton; five rods visible out of the original eight.
Axe
since 1981 it is understood as a tool of justice, not of war, and that is why it is drawn without a point.
Until 1951, many official versions painted a black Swiss cross on the blade of the axe, introduced before the Second World War to make clear that the fasces was Swiss and not a nod to Italian Fascism.
The resolution of 1803 created the coat of arms and the seal, but no flag; the first military standards, of 1804, were green with a white cross and the motto CANTON SANCT GALLEN in gold.
Each touch-up drew criticism of bureaucratic meddling; a detractor, cited by Flags of the World, ended up calling the local fasces a salami pinched by its string.
Test what you have read about the flag of St Gallen.
Flag image: Autor desconocido, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.
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