Black bull’s head with red tongue and ring on gold: the seal of free Uri of 1231 turned into a standard since Morgarten, 1315.
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.The flag in the words of vexillology and heraldry.
It is a square field, with a 1:1 ratio, yellow, with a black bull’s head in the centre, facing forward and with a red nose ring.
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.
King Henry (VII) granted Uri imperial freedom in 1231: the valley governed itself…
The oldest seal, from the mid-thirteenth century, already bears the bull’s head, and the oldest…
In 1948 the federal government fixed a realistic bull
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The flag of Uri is a black bull’s head, facing forward, with its tongue out and a ring in its nose, on a yellow ground. The animal is an aurochs, the wild bull now extinct: the people of Uri call it Uristier, a play on their own name.
King Henry (VII) granted Uri imperial freedom in 1231: the valley governed itself and had to defend itself, with a standard of its own. The oldest seal, from the mid-thirteenth century, already bears the bull’s head, and the oldest surviving standard is that of Morgarten, 1315, still in the town hall of Altdorf. Legend has it that the nose ring was put there by the Pope as a military prize; what is certain is that the ring recalls the domesticated aurochs.
The medieval design has not been touched; what changes is the style. In 1948 the federal government fixed a realistic bull, later it was simplified for registration plates and around 1990 the present slender line appeared, inspired by the standards of 1315.
Aurochs (Uristier)
a canting animal for the name of the valley; the neighbours used to mock by saying the ring proved how hard the people of Uri were to tame.
Red ring and tongue
in the old standards the ring was sometimes gold, and according to legend it was an honour granted by the Pope.
Gold and black
they have been explained as the colours of the imperial eagle, the seal of the freedom of 1231.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the people of Uri brought before the courts Zurichers who claimed the ring was a sign of defeat before the Grey League: the mockery was unfounded, the ring was already on the thirteenth-century seal.
Uri has no official description of its flag with the rank of law, only the one in the federal armorial. In 2020 the cantonal chancellery summed it up like this: anyone may stamp the bull they please, as long as it carries a ring on a yellow ground.
The standard gifted by Julius II in 1512 was used in the assembly of the valley until 1798; the French took it to Bern and in 1802 it returned to Altdorf with honours.
Test what you have read about the flag of Uri.
Sources consulted:
Flag image: Autor desconocido, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.
Other flag
Europa
Other flag
Europa
Other flag
Europa
Other flag
Europa
Other flag
Asia
Other flag
Europa
