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The flag of Slovenia

Zastava Republike Slovenije · since 1991

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A white, blue and red horizontal tricolour with the coat of arms of Slovenia across the upper hoist, half in the white and half in the blue. The stripes are the Slovene national flag of 1848, taken from the arms of Carniola; the arms, with Mount Triglav, two wavy lines and three gold stars, were added on independence in 1991.

Flag of Slovenia
Slovenia, 1:2. flagcdn.com, public domain.

At a glance

Adopted
1991
25 June 1991
Proportion
1:2
height to length
First hoisted
1991
26 June 1991, republic Square, Ljubljana, at the declaration of independence
Colours
white, blue, red
Earlier flags
4
since 1848
Designer
1
Marko Pogačnik

The colours

The colours of the flag of Slovenia, in the order it has them

  1. 01

    White

    bela

    Top stripe, Mount Triglav

    HEX
    #FFFFFF
    RGB
    255 255 255
    CMYK
    0 0 0 0
  2. 02

    Blue

    modra

    Middle stripe, the field of the shield

    HEX
    #0000FF
    RGB
    0 0 255
    CMYK
    100 60 0 10
    Pantone
    Reflex Blue C
    RAL
    5005
  3. 03

    Red

    rdeča

    Bottom stripe, the border of the shield

    HEX
    #FF0000
    RGB
    255 0 0
    CMYK
    0 100 100 0
    Pantone
    Warm Red C
    RAL
    3020

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 coat of arms in the upper hoist: a blue shield bordered in red on two sides, bearing a white Mount Triglav over two wavy blue lines and under three gold six-pointed stars, its upper half in the white stripe and its lower half in the blue.

Construction sheet of the flag of Slovenia
1:2height to length
Stripes
Three, each a third of the width of the flag
Arms position
The centre of the arms on the line between white and blue, 1/4 of the flag's length from the hoist
Arms height
1/3 of the width of the flag, the height of one stripe

Other forms

Civil ensign
The state flag in the proportion 2:3. Boats up to 24 m long fly the state flag.
Civil ensign
Naval jack
White, blue and golden yellow in three equal horizontal stripes, 1:2, in the colours of the arms. First flown on 1 August 1996 at the commissioning of the patrol boat Ankaran.
Naval jack
Slovene national flag
The same tricolour without the arms, defined alongside the state flag by the 1994 act.
Slovene national flag

Meaning

What each part stands for

White, blue and red
Often called Pan-Slavic, but taken from the arms of Carniola as redrawn in 1836: a blue eagle on a white field with red talons and beak
Mount Triglav
The highest Slovene peak
Two wavy lines
The Adriatic Sea and the rivers
Three gold stars
From the arms of the Counts of Celje, the leading medieval dynasty of Slovene origin

Who drew it

Marko Pogačnik
Designer of the coat of arms

History

How the flag of Slovenia got here

1848
The Slovene national flag

The Slovene national flag

Mar 1848 → 1918

First raised by Slovene students in Vienna in March 1848, and in Ljubljana on 7 April 1848 by the student Lovro Toman on the Zlata zvezda inn, in answer to the German flag on Ljubljana Castle. Recognised as the flag of the Duchy of Carniola until 1918.

1918

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

1918 → 3 Oct 1929

The tricolour represented the Slovene nation until the law renaming the kingdom Yugoslavia allowed only the blue, white and red state flag.

1941
The Second World War

The Second World War

1941 → 1945

Both the Partisans, often with a red star, and the anti-communist Home Guard fought under the Slovene tricolour.

Image: R-41, CC BY-SA 3.0

1945
Socialist Republic of Slovenia

Socialist Republic of Slovenia

1945 → 25 Jun 1991

The tricolour with a red star, as the flag of a republic of Yugoslavia. It was lowered on 26 June 1991 as the new flag was raised.

1991
The flag of the Republic of Slovenia

The flag of the Republic of SloveniaIn use

25 Jun 1991 → today

Given legal force on 25 June 1991 and raised the next day on Republic Square by five officers of the Territorial Defence. The 1994 act fixed the arms and the colours.

The law

What defines it, and who flies it

Undated

Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia, Article 6

1994

Act on the Coat of Arms, Flag and Anthem of the Republic of Slovenia and on the Slovenian National Flag

Official Gazette No. 67/1994. Defines the state flag with the arms and the national flag without it, and includes the geometric, drawing and colour rules and the rules for flying the flag.

In use

  • Flown in the position of honour, to the left of other flags

  • Flown with the flag of the European Union, the Slovene flag on the left

  • Flown to the right of a foreign flag only when a foreign head of state or representative of an international organisation is on an official visit

  • Flown at half-mast in times of mourning

Related flags

The flags it is confused with or comes from

Russia
The same white, blue and red stripes. The Slovene tricolour gained its legal basis 59 days before Russia made the identical flag its state flag on 22 August 1991.
Slovakia
Also white, blue and red with the arms towards the hoist.

Coat of arms

The arms of Slovenia

The coat of arms of Slovenia
The arms of Slovenia. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.