Vatican City Flag PNG
Vatican City is the smallest country in the world, located on the territory of the Italian capital. The area of the country is only 440 thousand square meters, but this does not cancel the importance of the Vatican for the world history of religion and art. And also does not cancel the presence of an official flag.
The pontifical flag of the Vatican State consists of an equilateral cloth divided into two equal vertical parts – yellow (at the shaft) and white, in the center of which are depicted two crossed keys (gold and silver), connected by a red cord and crowned with a tiara. The shaft ends with a point decorated with ribbons of the same colors as the flag and covered with gold thread.
History of the Flag
Since the Vatican is an auxiliary sovereign territory of the Holy See, its history is directly related to the history of the papacy. The Papal State was formed in 752 and covered most of Central Italy. The first flags of the state were designed in bright red, where the apostles Paul and Peter were first depicted on a solid background, and later on impersonal heraldic symbols.
Flag of the Papacy 1771 – ????
Thus, one of the most famous historical flags of the Papal State is the standard adopted in 1771. It was a red cloth with the image of a black bear on the right and a white cross fixed on a gray stone on the right.
???? – 1808
Until 1808, the flag of the Papal State consisted of yellow and dark red fields, the two traditional colors of the Eternal City. These colors have a long history, having appeared on the cockades of the Pope’s troops as early as the 9th century. However, when Rome was occupied by Napoleon’s army in 1808, its commander, General Sextus de Mioli, ordered that the papal armed forces be incorporated into the imperial forces. And, to confuse, he ordered the use of yellow and red cockades on the attached papal units.
1808 – 1929
Pope Pius VII, who did not want the Vatican to be annexed to France, ordered the armed forces and personal guards of the Vatican subordinate to him to wear a new cockade, which was yellow and white and corresponded to the gold and silver keys of the coat of arms of the Holy See. This measure was necessary because it was necessary for military formations loyal to the pope to have insignia differentiating them from those that were part of the armed imperial forces. Thus, the red vertical stripe on the flag was also replaced by a white one.
1929 – Today
The modern Vatican Flag was introduced in 1825 but was not adopted until June 8, 1929, just after independence from Italy (February 11, 1929). The Vatican flag is a square cloth consisting of two equal-sized vertical stripes, yellow and white. In the center of the white stripe are crossed two keys under the papal miter.
Meaning of Symbols and Colors
The flag of the Vatican consists of two equal vertical stripes. The left half of the flag is yellow and the right half is white. In the middle of the white half of the flag is the emblem of the Holy See, which consists of two keys, gold and silver, representing the Apostle Peter’s keys to paradise. Above the keys is the papal tiara, for which the keys act as a support. The keys are bound with red braid.
Symbols
- The gold and silver color on the flag represents the keys to paradise and to Rome, which belong to St. Peter and are also displayed on the coat of arms.
- The red cord symbolizes the unity of heavenly and ecclesiastical authority. Vatican officials believed that Peter could decide earthly issues through his vicars on earth – pontiffs.
- The papal tiara is a symbol of the power of the Popes, their divine election, and authority over the whole Church.
Colors
In heraldry, the colors yellow and white usually denote metals, gold, and silver, which do not fit next to each other. In the Vatican flag, an exception is made because the colors yellow and white also represent the keys of the Apostle Peter.
Use of the Flag
The official Description of the Vatican flag was given in the Vatican Basic Law of 1929 and repeated in the Basic Law of 2000, and its image is given in Annex A to these Laws. In the appendix, the flag is depicted square, that is, in the proportion 1:1.
However, this aspect ratio is not mandatory. In practice, in official situations, an equilateral flag is mostly used, but in other cases, including in the Vatican itself, flags with a different aspect ratio, such as 2:3, or triangular flags may be used.
Coat of Arms
The Vatican’s national coat of arms, officially adopted in 1929, is a classic red shield of French heraldic form with a pointed base and sharp corners, on which are depicted two crossed keys with a tiara drawn above them.
The keys in the Vatican coat of arms symbolize the keys to heaven, and the triple crown (papal tiara) symbolizes the Pope’s mission as “supreme priest, pastor, and teacher.”
It is the triple tiara that is painted on the coat of arms for a reason: the first crown was added in 1130 as a symbol of sovereignty over the Papal domain. The second was added in 1301, symbolizing the victory of spiritual authority over civil authority. The third tiara was added in 1342 by Pope Benedict XII as a symbol of the supremacy of the Pope’s authority over non-religious monarchs.
When papal authority passes from a deceased pope to his successor, the emblem is divided: the tiara is taken to accompany the funeral ceremony, and the keys, symbolizing the eternal authority of the church, pass to the coat of arms of the cardinal designate. One key symbolizes the entrance to Rome, the other to heaven. Instead of a tiara, a red-gold canopy is placed on his shield.
The Vatican also has a minor coat of arms, which is used on the national flag, as well as by the Vatican’s highest government agencies and papal institutions.
