The flag of Slovakia
Vlajka Slovenskej republiky · since 1992
Back to SlovakiaA white, blue and red horizontal tricolour with the Slovak coat of arms set towards the hoist. The stripes date from the revolution of 1848 and were the flag of Slovaks long before they were the flag of a state; the coat of arms was added by the Constitution of 1992, partly so that the flag could no longer be taken for Russia's.
At a glance
- Adopted
- 1992
- Proportion
- 2:3
- First hoisted
- 20:22
- Colours
- Earlier flags
- 8
- Designers
- 3
The colours
The colours of the flag of Slovakia, in the order it has them
- 0134%
White
bielaTop stripe, the shield's border, the double cross
- HEX
#FFFFFF- RGB
255 255 255- CMYK
0 0 0 0
- 0226.9%
Blue
modráMiddle stripe, the three hills
- HEX
#0B4EA2- RGB
11 78 162- CMYK
99 80 0 0- Pantone
286 C- RAL
5017
- 0339.2%
Red
červenáBottom stripe, the field of the shield
- HEX
#EE1C25- RGB
238 28 37- CMYK
10 100 74 2- Pantone
186 C- RAL
3026
No law gives these codes. HEX and RGB are the colour this site draws the flag in; CMYK, Pantone and RAL are the values most often published for it.
Construction
How the flag is drawn
Three horizontal stripes of equal width, white over blue over red, with the national coat of arms on the hoist half: a silver double cross on the middle peak of three blue hills, on a red shield, the shield bordered in white.
- Stripes
- Three, of equal width
- Shield height
- Half the height of the flag
- Shield position
- Equally distant from the top, hoist and bottom edges
- White border
- 1/100 of the flag's length, around the shield only
- Outlines
- None: the arms on the flag are drawn without contour lines
- Shield width
- Not set by the law. Flags of the World reads 4:5 of the shield's height from official images, which on a 600 × 900 grid gives a 240-unit shield 150 units from each edge and a 9-unit border
Other forms
- Vertical flag
- The flag turned 90° anticlockwise, with the shield kept upright at the top rather than rotated. Hung from a crossbar, at most three times as tall as it is wide, the shield equally distant from the top and both sides.
- Presidential standard
- Designed by Čisárik and Vrtel alongside the flag and the coat of arms, and in use since 1993.
Meaning
What each part stands for
- White and red
- The older Slavic colours, and the colours of the first Slovak flag of 1848
- Blue
- Added in 1848 from the Russian and Croatian flags: Russia as the patron of the Slavs, Croatia as a fellow nation inside the Kingdom of Hungary
- White, blue and red together
- The Pan-Slavic colours, shared with many other Slavic nations
- Double cross on three hills
- Based on a 14th-century coat of arms of Hungary, with the three hills enlarged to mark it as a national symbol. The double cross makes this one of 28 national flags with an overtly Christian symbol
Who drew it
- Ladislav Čisárik
- Painter and heraldic artist, commissioned by the interior ministry in 1990
- Ladislav Vrtel
- Heraldist, commissioned alongside Čisárik
- Jozef Novák
- Contributed substantially to the design and later declined the credit
History
How the flag of Slovakia got here
- 1848
The first Slovak flag
23 Apr 1848 → Sept 1848
A red and white bicolour, reportedly first flown during a theatre performance in Brezová pod Bradlom. The Demands of the Slovak Nation asked the Hungarian diet to recognise it that May, and were refused.
- 1848
Blue is added
Sept 1848 → 1849
During the Slovak Uprising volunteers flew red, white and blue in several orders, some carrying the Hungarian arms with the hills turned from green to blue. One version was first flown on 18 September 1848, as the volunteers crossed the Moravian border, and became the flag of the Slovak National Council.
Image: Pentakon, CC BY-SA 4.0
- 1868
White, blue, red
1868 → 1918
The present order of the stripes settled after 1868. Slovak associations in the United States flew it widely.
- 1918
Czechoslovakia's first flag
1918 → 30 Mar 1920
The new state flew the white and red bicolour of Bohemia, almost the same as the flag of Poland. Slovaks kept flying their tricolour, which was allowed officially in 1919.
- 1919
Slovak Soviet Republic
16 Jun 1919 → 7 Jul 1919
A plain red flag, for the three weeks the Soviet republic lasted.
- 1920
Czechoslovakia
30 Mar 1920 → 31 Dec 1992
White over red with a blue triangle at the hoist, the blue standing for Slovakia. Flown by the government in exile from 1939 to 1945.
- 1938
Autonomy, then the Slovak State
Nov 1938 → 1945
The plain tricolour became official when Slovakia gained autonomy in 1938, and the law of 23 June 1939 made it the state flag of the wartime Slovak Republic. That state also had a war flag: the tricolour with a black double cross on a shield in the centre.
- 1990
The plain tricolour again
1 Mar 1990 → 3 Sept 1992
After the Velvet Revolution a constitutional law restored the tricolour without arms as the flag of the Slovak Republic inside the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic. From 1991 arms were considered necessary so that it would not be confused with the new flags of Russia and Slovenia.
- 1992
The flag of the Slovak RepublicIn use
3 Sept 1992 → today
The Constitution added the coat of arms at the hoist. The flag was first hoisted at Bratislava Castle at 20:22 on 3 September 1992, and Act No. 63/1993 of 18 February 1993 fixed its details. Since 1 January 1993 it has been the flag of an independent state.
The law
What defines it, and who flies it
- 1 September 1992
Constitution of the Slovak Republic, Article 9(2)
Describes the flag. Gives no dimensions and no colour specification.
- 18 February 1993
Act No. 63/1993 Coll. on the state symbols of the Slovak Republic and their use
Fixes the size and position of the shield and its white border, the vertical form, and who flies the flag and when.
- 2001
Sets the size of the flag on a naval ship and its boats.
In use
Flown on their buildings by state bodies, the armed forces, the security services, the fire and rescue service and local government
Also flown on public holidays, when the state calls for it, at international events and at significant state or local occasions
Lowered to half-mast during state mourning
A naval ship flies it at 1.5 × 1 m and a ship's boat at 0.75 × 0.5 m
Related flags
The flags it is confused with or comes from
Russia- The same three stripes in the same order, in different shades. The coat of arms was added to tell the two apart.
Slovenia- Also white, blue and red with arms. Named in 1991 as one of the flags the plain tricolour would be confused with.
Czechia- The blue triangle on the Czechoslovak flag stood for Slovakia. Both states agreed at the split not to keep federal symbols; the Czech Republic adopted the flag on 17 December 1992 regardless.
Croatia- One of the two flags the blue of 1848 was taken from.
Coat of arms
The arms of Slovakia
