Four red and white triangles: the flag of Vigo comes from the one given in 1845 to the ships of its maritime province, and it carries the coat of arms of the olive tree.
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 rectangular field with a 2:3 ratio divided by its two diagonals into four triangles: white the ones on the sides and red the ones above and below.
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.
What is certain is that a royal order of 30 July 1845 gave each maritime province of Spain a flag…
It was born at sea: it was the signal carried by the ships of the maritime province of Vigo,…
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The flag of Vigo is divided into four triangles, two red and two white, which form an X. It was born at sea: it was the signal carried by the ships of the maritime province of Vigo, and the city adopted it as its own in 1987, with its coat of arms in the centre.
Some people believe it was used by the people of Vigo during the recapture of the city from the French, in the war of Independence, but that is not proven. What is certain is that a royal order of 30 July 1845 gave each maritime province of Spain a flag to distinguish its merchant ships, and this was Vigo’s.
Over time it became a symbol of the city. The city council regulated it as the official flag on 7 April 1987, the same day it fixed its coat of arms.
The maritime flag changed colour for some years, and the municipal one added the coat of arms.
1845
The flag of the maritime province of Vigo, without a coat of arms.
1905-1933
The maritime province becomes part of Pontevedra, and the red is changed for blue.
1987
The city council adopts it as the flag of the city, with the coat of arms in the centre.
Red and white triangles
the design of the old maritime flag, the memory of the port.
Castle on an island
the fortified city by the sea.
Olive tree
the tree that became a symbol of Vigo after the war of Independence.
The same royal order of 1845 that created Vigo’s gave Cartagena its red flag with a white cross, which also ended up as a symbol of the city. You can see it on the page of the flag of Cartagena.
Between 15 July 1905 and 24 May 1933, when the maritime province was called Pontevedra, the red of the flag was blue.
After the war of Independence, Vigo removed from its coat of arms the scallop shell, a sign of the power of the Church, and put an olive tree, that of the collegiate church. In America it was called ‘the city of the olive tree’.
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Text based on the article “Bandera de Vigo (Wikipedia en español)” from the Spanish Wikipedia, published under the licence CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sources consulted:
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