Flags and arms of cantons of Switzerland
Each of the 26 modern cantons of Switzerland has an official flag and a coat of arms. The history of development of these designs spans the 13th to the 20th centuries.
List
The cantons are listed in their order of precedence given in the federal constitution.
Standesfarben were used to identify the (historical) cantons when the full banner was not available for display, although there is overlap; Unterwalden and Solothurn share the same colours, as do Basel and Appenzell, and with the accession of the modern cantons, Valais and Basel-City, and St. Gallen and Thurgau.[3]
Nr.[4] | Name | COA | Flag | Colours[3] | Blazon | Date[5] | Capital |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Zurich | Per bend argent and azure | 13th c. | Zürich | |||
2 | Bern | Gules, on a bend or a bear passant sable armed, langued, and pizzled of the field | 13th c. | Bern | |||
3 | Lucerne | Per pale azure and argent (flag: Per fess argent and azure) | 14th c. | Lucerne | |||
4 | Uri | Or, a bull's head cabossed sable langued and nose-ringed gules | 13th c.[6] | Altdorf | |||
5 | Schwyz | Gules, in sinister chief a cross couped argent
|
13th c.;[6] 17th c. (modern coa) | Schwyz | |||
6a | Obwalden
|
Per fess gules and argent, a key paleways counterchanged | 13th c. (as part of Unterwalden);[6] 17th c. (modern coa) | Sarnen | |||
6b | Nidwalden
|
Gules, a key paleways with two shafts argent | 13th c. (as part of Unterwalden);[6] 17th c. (modern coa) | Stans | |||
7 | Glarus | Gules, a pilgrim walking towards the dexter argent, habited sable, holding in his dexter hand a staff, in his sinister hand a bible, and about his head a halo, all or | 14th c. | Glarus | |||
8 | Zug | Argent, a fess azure | 1319 | Zug | |||
9 | Fribourg | [7] | Per fess sable and argent | 1470s (banner); 1830 (coa) | Fribourg | ||
10 | Solothurn | Per fess gules and argent | 1443 | Solothurn | |||
11a | Basel-Stadt
|
Argent, a crosier paleways sable | 13th c. | Basel | |||
11b | Basel-Landschaft
|
Argent, a crosier with seven crockets paleways to sinister gules | 1834 | Liestal | |||
12 | Schaffhausen | Or, a ram salient sable horned, crowned, unguled, and pizzled of the field, and langued gules | 1218 | Schaffhausen | |||
13a | Appenzell Innerrhoden
|
Argent, a bear rampant sable armed, langued, and pizzled gules | 15th c. (as Appenzell) | ||||
13b | Appenzell Ausserrhoden
|
Argent, a bear rampant sable armed, langued, and pizzled gules, between the letters V and R sable | 15th c. (as Appenzell); 17th c. (modern coa) | Herisau Trogen [8] | |||
14 | St. Gallen | Vert, a fasces paleways argent banded of the field | 1803[9] | St. Gallen | |||
15 | Grisons
|
[10] | Per fess and in chief per pale: first per pale sable and argent; second quarterly azure and or, a cross counterchanged; third argent, an ibex rampant sable langued and pizzled gules | 15th c. (Three Leagues); 1933 (modern coa) | Chur | ||
16 | Aargau
|
Per pale, the first sable, three bars wavy argent; the second azure, three stars argent | 1803[11] | Aarau | |||
17 | Thurgau
|
Per bend argent and vert, two lions passant bendways or langued and pizzled gules | 1803[12] | Frauenfeld[13] | |||
18 | Ticino
|
Per pale gules and azure (flag: Per fess gules and azure) | 1803[14] | Bellinzona | |||
19 | Vaud
|
Per fess argent and vert, in chief the words 'Liberté et Patrie' or | 1803[15] | Lausanne | |||
20 | Valais
|
Per pale argent and gules, thirteen stars counterchanged | 1571;[16] 1815 (modern coa) | Sion | |||
21 | Neuchâtel | [17] | Per pale vert and gules, a pale and in sinister chief a cross couped , both argent
|
1857[18] | Neuchâtel | ||
22 | Geneva | Per pale: first or, an eagle with two heads dimidiated per pale sable crowned, armed, and beaked gules; second gules, a key paleways or | 15th c. | Geneva | |||
23 | Jura | Per pale: first argent, a crosier gules; second gules, three bars argent | 1979[19] | Delémont | |||
Swiss Confederation | Gules, a Cross couped Argent
|
14th c. ( 1815 (modern coa)
|
(Bern )[20] |
Heraldic charges
Of the 26 cantons since 1999 (22 cantons in 1848, accession of Jura in 1979, three half-cantons designated "canton" in 1999):
- six flags are simple bicolor designs, per fess (Lucerne, Fribourg, Solothurn, Ticino), per bend (Zürich) or with a central fess (Zug). The coats of arms of Ticino and Lucerne have the peculiarity that they are per pale even though the flags are per fess.
- eight flags with heraldic animals:
- the bear for Bern and for Appenzell (both Innerrhoden and Ausserrhoden)
- the bull for Uri
- the ram for Schaffhausen
- the ibex for Graubünden (at the time only one of three coats of arms shown side by side for the Three Leagues)
- the eagle (Reichsadler) for Geneva
- two lions for Thurgau
- three with the bishop's crozier or Baselstab, for Basel (Basel-City and Basel-Country) and Jura
- three with a key (Keys of Heaven), for Unterwalden (both Obwalden and Nidwalden) and for Geneva
- two cantons show the Swiss cross, for Schwyz on solid red, and for Neuchâtel in the corner of the "revolutionary" tricolour
- two with stars, Valais and Aargau, the latter with additional wavy lines representing rivers
- two with letters for Vaud(inscription 'Liberté et Patrie').
- the image of a pilgrim (Saint Fridolin) for Glarus
- the fasces for St. Gallen
Distinctively, Swiss cantons use square flags.[21]
History
Historically, the number of cantons was:
- eight from 1352 to 1481, see Eight Cantons
- thirteen from 1513 to 1798, see Thirteen Cantons
- twenty during the time of the Helvetic Republic, from 1798 to 1803, without official flags or coats of arms
- twenty-two from 1848 to 1978, including three cantons divided into two half-cantonseach
- twenty-three from 1979 to 1999, due to the secession of the canton of Jura from Bern.
Nidwalden and Obwalden form traditional subdivisions of
With the exception of Lucerne, Schwyz and Ticino, the cantonal flags are simply transposed versions of the cantonal coats of arms. In case of Lucerne and Ticino, whose flags consist of fields of different colours divided per fess (horizontally), the coats of arms are of the same colours divided per pale (vertically). The coat of arms of Schwyz has the cross moved from the (hoist) canton to the sinister canton with respect to the flag.
The coats of arms of the
Pope
The fashion of arranging cantonal insignia in shields (escutcheons) as coats of arms arises in the late 15th century. The Tagsatzung in Baden was presented with stained glass representations of all cantons c. 1501. In these designs, two cantonal escutcheons were shown side by side, below a shield bearing the Imperial Eagle and a crown, flanked by two banner-bearers. Based on these, there arose a tradition of representing cantonal arms in stained glass (Standesscheiben), alive throughout the early modern period and continued in the modern state.
-
Depiction of the coat of arms of six of the Eight Cantons (omitting Zürich and Bern, but adding Solothurn and Appenzell) in a 1459 manuscript made for Albert VI, Archduke of Austria. The text denounces "the Swiss" as "faithless vassals" who hold their territories illegally.
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The coats of arms of theJacob Stampferof Zürich (1547).
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Standesscheibe of Unterwalden (1564)
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Depiction of the coats of arms of theThirteen Cantons (title page of La Republique des Suisses by Josias Simmler, printed in 1577)
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Coats of arms of the Thirteen Cantons as part of a larger collection of coats of arms offree citiesby Johann Siebmacher (1605).
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Depiction of the coats of arms of the thirteen cantons and their associates, printed in 1642.
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Print of a Wappenscheibe of the 22 coats of arms of therestored Swiss Confederacy (1815)[23]
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Depiction of the coats of arms (including half-cantons) as they stood in 1912.[24]
Zürich
The flag of Zürich is derived from a blue-and-white design attested since the 1220s, the diagonal division of the flag is first attested 1389.
The flag of Zürich was adorned by a red Schwenkel since 1273. This was regarded as a mark of sovereignty and honour by the people of Zürich, but the Schwenkel was otherwise used as a mark of "shame", identifying replacement flags used after a real flag was captured by an enemy This led to a misunderstanding after the Battle of Nancy, when the Duke of Lorraine removed the Schwenkel from the Zürich flag, stating that with the present victory, Zürich had "erased its shame". The perplexed Zürich troops later quietly re-attached the Schwenkel.
Zürich attached the
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Depiction of the flag with Schwenkel (Humbert Mareschet, 1585)
-
Heraldic depiction of Zürich as animperial city (Murerplan, 1576)
Bern
The city of
Lucerne
The blue-and-white flag is attested from 1386. The vertical division of the coat or arms has been explained as due to a gonfalon type of banner used by Lucerne, hung from a horizontal crossbar, which was also used as a flagstaff, so that the flag was turned by 90 degrees when carried in battle.
Uri
The flag originates in the 13th century. It was carried in the battles of Morgarten (1315) and Laupen (1339). One 14th century flag is preserved in the town hall of Altdorf.
Schwyz
Schwyz used a solid red war flag (
From the 14th century, a depiction of the crucifixion was sometimes shown on the flag.
Pope
The modern design of flag and coat of arms with the cross in one corner dates to 1815. The precise definition of the proportions of the cross dates to 1963.
-
TheBlutbanner
-
Standesscheibe of Schwyz (1586), showing the solid red coat of arms
Unterwalden
The flag Unterwalden, as the canton itself, has a complicated history, on one hand due to the rivalry of the constituent half-cantons Obwalden and Nidwalden, and on the other because its historical flag was identical to that of Solothurn.
The war flag of Obwalden was plain red and white, first recorded in 1309. Nidwalden tended to be dominated by Obwalden and usually fought under the same banner.
A single key was used in the seal of Nidwalden from the mid 13th century. This seal was used for both Obwalden and Nidwalden (i.e. the united canton of Unterwalden) during the early 14th century. The addition et vallis superioris "and the upper valley" was scratched into the seal to reflect this. At this point, there was a seal (with the key) and a war flag (red-and-white), but no coat of arms. From c. 1360, Obwalden and Nidwalden were separated into two independent territories, while keeping a single vote in the confederate diet. Because of the "and the upper valley" addition scratched into the seal, Nidwalden began using a new seal of its own, and the seal of Unterwalden, formerly the seal of Nidwalden, now was used by Obwalden. The seal of Nidwalden now showed St. Peter with his keys.
Nidwalden began using the double-key as a design on its war flag from the early 15th century. The red-and-white flag of Unterwalden was now also the flag of Obwalden if both half-cantons were to be represented separately. This was the situation as the fashion of coats of arms was introduced in the late 15th century. The early Standesscheiben of the first decade of the 16th century show the double-key as the coat of arms and flag of Nidwalden, while Obwalden has the red-and-white design in both its flag and its coat of arms.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the coat of arms of the combined canton of Unterwalden came to be depicted as a superposition of the red-and-white flag of Obwalden and the double-key of Nidwalden.
Only in the mid 18th century does the single-key symbol (taken from the 13th-century seal) appear occasionally in coats of arms of Obwalden. This design was introduced as the official coats of arms of Obwalden in 1816, and the same design came gradually into use also for the flag of Obwalden, which also resolved the problem of the Obwalden flag being identical to that of Solothurn.
Glarus
The flag of
After this, Glarus used the image of the saint in its banners. During the 15th and 16th century, these images varied considerably. Only by the beginning 17th century a standard design was established, showing the Saint as a pilgrim in silver on a red field. The modern design shows the pilgrim in black, inspired by a banner shown in Glarus claimed as the original banner of 1388. The current official design dates to 1959.
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Flag of St. Fridolin, on exhibit in the Glarus cantonal museum, Näfels.
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Coat of arms of Glarus in 1605
Zug
First recorded in 1319.[citation needed]
Fribourg
The oldest seal of the city dates to 1225 and shows the
Solothurn
1443 (1394?)[citation needed]
Basel
The peculiar heraldic shape of the crozier (the Baselstab or "Basel staff") dates to the 13th century, used in the seals of the bishops of Basel.
It was introduced as heraldic emblem in 1385. From this time, the Baselstab in black represented the city, and the same emblem in red represented the bishop.
The staff represented was based on an actual artefact, a gilded staff recorded for the 12th century. It is of unknown origin or significance (beyond its obvious status of bishop's crozier), but it is assumed to have represented a relic, possibly attributed to Saint Germanus of Granfelden.[27]
The banner of the city of Basel with the same design was introduced in the early 15th century, as the city gained greater independence from the ruling
The flag and coat of arms of Basel-Landschaft was introduced in 1834, from the coat of arms of Liestal. It represents red Baselstab historically used by the bishops, but with the addition of seven
Schaffhausen
The flag is documented from 1218. The crown was added to the ram in 1512. The ram was originally
Appenzell
The flag is based on that of the
Appenzell split into its two half-cantons as a result of the
St. Gallen
The coat of arms of the city of St. Gallen like the cantonal coat of arms of Appenzell since the 14th century has shown the bear taken from the flag of the abbot of St. Gall. But the canton of St. Gallen is unrelated to the historical territory of its eponymous capital, having been patched together from eight unrelated territories of other Cantons in 1798. The cantonal arms and flag are an original design by David von Gonzenbach, created in 1803. In the original design, the weapon contained in the fasces was a halberd, but this was changed to the axe in 1843. There were a number of other design changes during the 20th century; from the 1930s[dubious ] until 1951, a black Swiss cross was placed on the axe blade to avoid association with the fasces as used as a symbol of Italian fascism.
Grisons
The flag of Grisons was adopted in 1933. From 1815 to 1933, the canton had used various combinations of the three coats of arms of the historical Three Leagues. The modern design combines simplified versions of the historical coats of arms.[30] A combined coat of arms with the same division of the shield as in the modern version (but with the position of the leagues of God's House and of the Ten Jurisdiction reversed) is already found on the Patenpfenning minted by
-
Arms of the League of God's House
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Arms of the Grey League
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Arms of the League of the Ten Jurisdictions
Aargau
Aargau (
Thurgau
Like Aargau, Thurgau (
Ticino
The flag is an 1803 design, but its designer or intended symbolism have not been recorded. The convention of displaying the flag per fess is apparently inspired by Lucerne.
Vaud
The design dates to 1803, based on the flag used in the Vaudois insurrection against Bernese rule in the 1790s, which was green and inscribed with Liberté, Egalité in white lettering. From this, the white and green became the "revolutionary" colours of cantons newly created from former subject territories of the confederacy, also used in the flags of the cantons of St. Gallen and Thurgau, and a green flag was also briefly used by Aargau. The lettering in the Vaudois flag was in black or in green during 1803–1819, the gold was introduced with the military flag as Vaud organised its army in 1819. As such, it violates the heraldic rule of tincture which states that gold (or yellow) may not be placed upon silver (or white).
Valais
The
Neuchâtel
The flag is unrelated to the historical flag of the town of Neuchâtel, which had been in use from 1350, and as cantonal flag from 1815 until 1848, and which remains part of the town's coat of arms. The canton of Neuchâtel was admitted to the
Geneva
The flag of Geneva is the historical flag of the city of
The full
The coat of arms of the city of Geneva was adopted as the cantonal coat of arms upon the accession of Geneva as a city-canton to the
Jura
The separatist movement which eventually led to the canton's creation emerged in the 1940s, and the flag is a design by Paul Boesch, dated to 1943. The crozier symbolizes the former Prince-Bishopric of Basel, the seven stripes represent the seven districts of the Bernese Jura. It was officially recognized as a regional flag by Bern from the early 1950s. The canton of Jura was created in 1979 after a referendum, but only three of the seven districts opted to join. The seven stripes were retained in the cantonal flag regardless, and there remains some irredentism calling for a restored unity of all seven districts.
See also
References
- ^ This is the order generally used in Swiss official documents. At the head of the list are the three city cantons that were considered preeminent in the Old Swiss Confederacy; the other cantons are listed in order of accession to the Confederation. This traditional order of precedence among the cantons has no practical relevance in the modern federal state, in which the cantons are equal to one another, although it still determines formal precedence among the cantons' officials (see Swiss order of precedence).
- ^ "Regional Portraits: Cantons". Neuchâtel, Switzerland: Swiss Federal Statistical Office. 2011. Archived from the original on 30 April 2009. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
- ^ a b Louis, Mühlemann, Wappen und Fahnen der Schweiz, 700 Jahre Confoederatio Helvetica, Lengnau, 3rd ed. 1991. Swiss Armed Forces, Fahnenreglement, Reglement 51.340 d (2007).[1] Archived 2020-11-11 at the Wayback Machine. Standesfarben listed for the Tagsatzung of 1807: Der aufrichtige und wohlerfahrene Schweizer-Bote 4 (1807), 190f.
- Thirteen Cantons.
- ^ Date of introduction of the flag or coat of arms; see cantons of Switzerland for a list of cantons by date of accession to the Swiss Confederacy.
- ^ Foundation of the Old Swiss Confederacy).
- ^ black and white, before 1815 (and partly until 1830) black and blue.
- ^ Seat of government and parliament is Herisau, the seat of the judicial authorities is Trogen
- ^ Act of Mediation; formed out of the Canton of Säntis and the northern half of the Canton of Linth.
- ^ black-white-blue according to the 2007 Fahnenreglement; historically also grey-white-blue.
- ^ Act of Mediation; created from the 1798-invented cantons of Aargau (previously land controlled by Bern) and Baden (previously a Swiss condominium), together with Fricktal (before 1802 not Swiss territory).
- condominium.
- ^ Seat of parliament half-yearly alternates between Frauenfeld and Weinfelden
- Ennetbirgische Vogteien.
- ^ Act of Mediation, formerly Canton of Léman.
- République des Sept-Dizainswith seven stars.
- ^ green-white-red, formerly red-yellow.
- ^ Coat of arms introduced in the aftermath of the Neuchâtel Crisis of 1856–1857.
- ^ seceded from Berne
- ^ The Swiss constitution does not designate a capital. Bern was designated as "seat of the federal administration" in 1848, and referred to as "federal city" (German: Bundesstadt, French: ville fédérale, Italian: città federale).
- ^
ISBN 9781843090427. Retrieved 2015-12-04.
The official flags of all Swiss cantons are square armorial banners (Kantonfahnen).
- ^ Pierre Surchat: Flags and arms of cantons of Switzerland in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, 2013.
- ^ Fribourg colored in black and blue. Grisons shows three coats of arms. The lions of Thurgau are shown counterchanged. The old coat of arms of Neuchatel is shown. The three stars in the coat of arms of Aargau colored yellow.
- ^ Grisons shows three coats of arms including supporters within the shield. Aargau arranges the three stars in a vertical row. St. Gallen places a cross on the axe blade. Glarus shows Saint Fridolin as carrying a bag. The arms of Obwalden and Nidwalden are swapped[clarification needed]
- ^ ngw.nl
- ^ F. Ducrest in: Freiburg, Historisches Bibliographisches Lexikon der Schweiz.
- ^ staatskanzlei.bs.ch
- ^ rōden being an archaic term for "regular turn, round; order, row, division" (ultimately from Latin rota "wheel") used for an administrative division similar to "district" used in Appenzell since before independence (14th century). Schweizerisches IdiotikonVI (1906), 589ff. (especially 595f.) .
- ^ A. Kläger, "Appenzeller Fahnen in der Waffensammlung des Historischen Vereins Herisau", Appenzeller Kalender 243 (1964).
- .
Bibliography
- Walter Angst. A Panoply of Colours: The Cantonal Banners of Switzerland and the Swiss National Flag. 1992. ISBN 9789993300472.