Two golden lions climb the green and white diagonal: a standard that has carried a heraldic error since 1803 which no reform has corrected.
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, of a 1:1 ratio, divided on the diagonal: green in the lower left triangle and white in the upper right, with a golden lion in each part.
Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.
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The lions come from far away: they are the emblem of the counts of Kyburg, lords of the region,…
In 1264 the Habsburgs changed the ground
On 13 April 1803, at the birth of the canton
Heralds denounced it from 1864 and in 1938 the cantonal archivist proposed an all-green field with…
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The flag of Thurgovia cuts the field on the diagonal, green above and white below, and places a golden lion in each part. It is the only Swiss cantonal flag that knowingly commits a heraldic error: a golden lion on a white ground, metal on metal, something the rules of heraldry forbid as illegible.
The lions come from far away: they are the emblem of the counts of Kyburg, lords of the region, who in 1094 bequeathed their arms to Thurgovia —a field with a band between two golden lions—. In 1264 the Habsburgs changed the ground; in 1460 the confederates conquered the country and governed it as common territory. On 13 April 1803, at the birth of the canton, the revolutionary government removed the band, discarded the old colour and put in green and white, the colours of liberty, as in St Gallen and Vaud. Nobody noticed the blunder: a lion was left on the white, where it can barely be seen, against all heraldic rule.
The 1803 design remains in force. Heralds denounced it from 1864 and in 1938 the cantonal archivist proposed an all-green field with a white band and white lions; the Second World War postponed the debate and in 1948 the cantonal parliament rejected the change proposals.
Two golden lions
inherited from the counts of Kyburg; symbol of the brave soldier.
Green and white
the revolutionary colours of 1803, hope and freedom.
The diagonal
it recalls the band of the old arms, which this time has been removed.
The lion on white breaks the rule against placing metal on metal; after a century of technical complaints, two formal attempts at change failed on a vote and the flag remains as it is.
The dynasty that gave the lions died out in 1263, but its standard survives in the village of Kyburg, today within the canton of Zurich itself.
Thurgovia is one of the cantons born in 1803: its flag is two hundred years old in a country full of medieval standards, and that shows in the revolutionary air of the green.
Test what you have read about the flag of Thurgovia.
Flag image: Autor desconocido, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.
