Last modified: 2003-10-04 by ivan sache
Keywords: slovenia | europe | triglav | mountain (white) | star: 6 points | stars: 3 (yellow) | civil ensign | state ensign | administrative signal | anchors: 2 crossed (white) |
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![[Flag of Slovenia]](../images/s/si.gif)
by Zeljko Heimer
Flag adopted 27 June 1991, coat of
arms adopted 20 July 1994.
Proportion: 1:2
Description: Horizontally divided white-blue-red with the
coat ot arms in the upper left corner.
Use: on land, civil, state and war flag; at sea,
war ensign.
Colour approximate specifications (as given in Album des Pavillons [pay00]):
On this page:
See also:
Other link of interest:
On 25 June 1991 the flag was hoisted officially and for the first time on the Republic Square in front of the Slovenian parliament in Ljubljana. At the same time the old flag with the red star was lowered in front of the parliament building. Since there was not enough new flags, a lot of plain Slovenian tricolours without coat of arms were hoisted together with the new flag. The flag was officially readopted in 1994 because of the new constitution and flag law.
Uros Zizmund, 1 April 1998
The Slovenian flag which can be bought in shops is officially in ratio 1:2. De facto many flags are used in ratio 2:5 to match the local flags when they are hoisted together. There are also flags, intended for vertical hoisting, in ratio 1:4, especially popular for hoisting at border crossings or in front of official buildings.
Valt Jurecic & Zeljko Heimer, 26 January 2002
The coat of arms is not rotated vertically on
the Slovenian vertical flag as erroneously reported by Znamierowski
[zna99].
This is an evident confusion of Slovenia and
Slovakia, the latter having the
special vertical (rotated) version of the
flag prescribed in the law.
Jan Zrzavy, 9 October 2001
![[Plain flag of Slovenia]](../images/s/si_1848.gif)
by Ivan Sache
In the center of Ljubljana, just some
200 m from the main square, there is a house on which there is an
interesting memorial plaque. It says something like this: It was
in this house that the first Slovenian tricolour was hoisted in the
revolutionary year of 1848.
Unfortunately, there is no exact date of this historical
hoisting, but I was lucky to join a group of tourists with a guide,
who explained that there was a pub in the house at the time (as well
as in all other houses in the street, named Wolfova), and that
it took several beers before the group of insurgents gathered guts to
hoist the flag. The flag hoisted was, of course, white over blue over
red tricolour that is still used (without the arms). Austrian police
reacted instantly and there were some blood for it, and some dozen of
insurgents ended in jail.
Zeljko Heimer, 9 April 1997
Modern Slovenia is constituted of the entire historic province of Kranjska (correct English name is Carniola), a part of Stajerska (Styria in English), a tiny part of Koroska (Carinthia), a part of Istria and some other parts.
Zoran Obradovic, 5 January 1998
Historical Slovene colours in the national flag are white, blue,
and red (in this order from the top to the bottom) -- note, the same
order of colours is also in Slovak and
Russian flags. However, the origin of colours
in Slovene flag is a bit different.
The central region of Slovenia is Carniola, and its original coat of
arms had a golden eagle red claws on a blue background (cf.
the coat of arms of Kranj). Later,
Vienna demanded that the golden beast was replaced by a silver one.
When these colours were transferred into colours on a flag we got the
white-blue-red flag. A flag with these three plain horizontal stripes
was also the official flag of Slovenia (also Dravska banovina
in the pre-Second World War Yugoslav kingdom) up to 1945. In fact, it
was used also by emigrants abroad after this time.
Andrej Brodnik, 30 June 1995
The tricolor flag was used:
Zeljko Heimer, 24 May 2001
The coat of arms of Slovenia was designed by Marko Pogacnik. Its main elements are the three-peaked Triglav mountain and three yellow stars.
Triglav mountain
In year 1943 the Liberation Front
(Osvobodilna fronta) was already issuing money, with various
designs all picturing triple peak, five pointed star, letters OF and
rising sun.
On money issued in 1944, there was a coat of arms in socialist style:
round shield with short rays with triple peak and tree wavy lines.
Wavy lines represent actually the sea and inland Slovenia is
represented by the mountain. On top of the shield was a five-pointed
star. That was the base for later design of coat of arms of People's
(later Socialist) Republic of Slovenia in Yugoslavia, with corn,
linden and a band added around the round shield. When liberation
movements became stronger in the late 1980s, they also took the sign
of triple peak and lines, in various designs, and it was no wander
that the newly formed state has it now in the arms.
It is worth mentioning that a golden leaf of linden was widely used
also as a badge by supporters of liberation ideas. However, the
linden didn't find its place on the new arms.
The three stars
The other element of the arms are three stars. They are from the coat of arms of the old Slovenian family of Counts of Celje (to be pronounced somthing like tselye - thereof adjective form Celjski). The Celjski coat of arms was blue with three golden sixpointed stars 2:1, and is still used as a coat of arms of the town of Celje. The family was a main concurrent of the Hapsburgs before the Empire was formed, after the violent death of the last of the Celjski Counts. When the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and later Yugoslavia was formed, the coat of arms adopted by the state consisted of a shield tierced, with the arms of Serbia, Croatia, and third one representing Slovenia. This third was Azure, a crescent Argent below three stars Or per fess. This must be connected with the "Illyrian" (Old Croatian - see on Croatian arms first right) coat of arms: Azure, a crescent Argent below the stars Or and Celje arms.
The crescent was also used on the arms of "Provinz Laibach" - Province of Ljubljana, formed of parts of Slovenia annexed by the Third Reich. The coat of arms was a crowned eagle bearing a checkered crescent.
Zeljko Heimer, 7 November 1995
After First World War, Slovenia or better said Slovenian lands (not all) became part of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (Drzava SHS), later Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes/Yugoslavia (Kraljevina SHS/Jugoslavija) . For the first time Slovenian territory was partly united under one name, one authority and one coat of arms. But a lot of Slovenians were not pleased with the coat of arms which was created by Belgrade politicians: Blue shield with white 5-pointed star above white crescent. This coat of arms was in use from 1919 to 1929. Then the white 5-pointed star was replaced with three yellow 6-pointed stars, which are originally from the coat of arms of the town of Celje. The position of stars was 2+1 or 1+2. At that time Slovenia also became the Bannate of Drava (Dravska Banovina). This latter coat of arms was in use from 1929 to 1941.
Uros Zizmund, 13 July 1997
![[Civli ensign]](../images/s/si~.gif)
by Zeljko Heimer
The Slovene civil and state ensign is prescribed by regulation Pravilnik o izobezanju pomorske zastave in znamenj na ladjah trgovske mornarice Republike Slovenije*, issued by the Minister of Transporatation on 24 August 2001 and published in the Slovene official gazette Uradni list Republike slovenije 71/2001, 24. August 2001.
This regulation officially invalidates the previous relevant regulation, that of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia from1981, that was de facto invalid for more than a decade.
*Regulations on hoisting the maritime flag and signals on ships of the merchant navy of the Republic of Slovenia
The civil and state ensign is prescribed to be 2:3 in ratio or more precisly in four prescribed sizes depending on the size of the ship:
Zeljko Heimer, 27 August 2002
Administative signal
![[Administrative signal]](../images/s/si~admin.gif)
by Zeljko
Heimer
Following the practice of the former Yugoslavia, which was also taken by Croatia, an administrative signal - a square blue flag with white anchors - is prescribed for the "vessels of the organs responsible for the security of naval navigation" (i.e. police). The anchors should be included in an imaginary rectangle high 3/8 of the flag height and wide 1/3.
Zeljko Heimer, 27 August 2002