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Veneto Region (Italy)

Regione del Veneto, Venetia

Last modified: 2005-11-19 by dov gutterman
Keywords: italy | veneto | st. mark | winged lion | serenissima | venice | liga veneta republica | venetia |
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image by Mario Fabretto



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Description of the Flag

The gonfalon, the coat of arms and the flag were adopted on the 20th May 1975. The coat of arms is a landscape with the sky in blue with the words Regione del Veneto, the sea in blue, the mountains in brown and a plain in green on which stands the lion of Saint Mark having its right paw on an open book on which is written Pax tibi Marce evangelista meus. The gonfalon is red with ornaments in yellow , the coat of arms in a squarish form and the seven coats of arms of the capital cities of the regional provinces on the seven cut tongues at the bottom. The flag is exactly the same, there is only a rotation of 90 degrees for the coat of arms. The regulations for the use of the flag were issued on the 10th April 1998.
Pascal Vagnat, 22 September 1998

From <www.ac-grenoble.fr>:
"The flag of Veneto, is the one of the old Republic of Venice, fallen in 1797 with Napoleon's conquest. It represents a winged lion which puts its paw on a book with a latin inscription. The lion is the symbol of the Evangelist Mark, who is said to have stopped, on a Venetian island, during one of his joumeys. There an angel ( who is symbolized by the lion's wings ) appeared to him and greeted him saying : "Peace be with you, Mark, my Evangelist ". He also told him he would rest there after his death. Mark was buried in Alexandria in Egypt, controlled by the Muslim. His remains were stolen by the Venetians, who hid them under a load of pork meat, and then they arrived in Venice in 828. There it was built the wonderful St Mark basilica in order to keep St Mark's remains . Since then the winged lion was the symbol of the free Republic of Venice . In times of peace it was represented with its paw on the book, in times of war with the unsheathed sword . Since 1866 when Veneto was annexed to Italy, the winged lion , with its paw on the book has been the symbol of our region."
Located by Dov Gutterman, 28 August 1999

While visiting cities and town in Veneto (Venice, Verona etc...), I noticed that the flas in use have all blue background and no inscription. Here is photo from Verona. Photo taken by Eli Gutterman.
Dov Gutterman, 15 October 2004

Veneto flag was changed some years ago and the official Veneto flag now don't have the inscription "Regione del Veneto" any more.
Informazioni Sitoveneto, 2 November 2004


Previous Flag


image by Mario Fabretto, 10 December 1996

For a bigger image (110 Kb's) by Mello luchtenberg, click here


The Gonfalone


image by Mello Luchtenberg, 14 September 2001


Vertical Flags

Two versions of vertical flags were seen at Cortina d'Ampezzo and Borca di Cadore.
Dov Gutterman, 24 October 2004


Serenissima


"War Flag"
image by Jaume Ollé, 17 December 2000


"Civil Flag"
image by Jaume Ollé and Mello Luchtenberg, 2 January 2005

The dark red and gold flag of the "Serenissima" Republic of Venice (from early days until May 1797) is sparkling a harsh debate in Italy, because of the group of Venetian independentist who occupied (using a home-made tank) the Bell Tower of St. Mark Square ten days ago and raised the flag.

Today the trial began in Venice and the online Italian newspaper "la Repubblica" shows a nice picture of the flag hanging from a balcony in town from which you can see the peculiar "tails" of the flag. The main pattern on the flag is, of course, the winged lion of St. Mark.
Alessio Bragadini, 21 May 1997

In the time of the Serenisime republic the territory under its control was important and some banners are in use in several regions. I don't have sure data about all the sides and designs. The banners (Gonfalon?) are frequently of armorial type. Please take this infos with caution because the source are portolanos or write descriptions.
Bergamo: red-yellow vertical
Brescia: white with blue lion (tongued and armed red?)
Crema: red over white
Verona: yellow cross on blue background
Vicenza: white croos on red background
Padova: red cross on white backgorund
Feltre: red flag with white castle (castle design unknow for me)
Belluno: yellow cross on blue background (two ?griffin? in the upper quarters?)
Treviso: red cross on white background. Two eighpointed stars in the upper quarters.
Ceneda: unknown
Aquileya: Blue flag with golden crowned eagle
Trieste: unknown
Istria: blue with golden kid
Croatia: red-white checked
Dalmatia: blue with three lion heads (2-1)
Cherso: green with rampant white horse
Rascia: yellow with a black horseshoe
Albania: red lion on yellow backgorund. The lion tongued and armed blue
Adria: blue with green circle, and within a white castle (doubteful)
Polesina: green flag with golden castle and below the golden venetian lion
I believe that more banners are used in Creta, Cyprus, Egean, Eubea and Grece but details are no availables.
Jaume Ollé , 9 November 1998

Flag of the Liga Veneta and Serenissima reppublica di Venecia. I saw a foto of it but I doubt that it was the true flag of the Republic. The attached  is one of the douzaines of poltical-regional flags in use currently in Italia.
Jaume Ollé, 17 December 2000

In the first page of the 10th of May edition of the PUBLICO newspaper there was a photo of Umberto Bossi with flags. In it you can see a very large "Serenissima" flag (a venetian flag in only gold and red) and behind it a smaller white flag, partially visible. This serenissima flag has been, apparently, "adopted" by venetian independentists, although it is, also, a "yacht ensign" of Venice. A weird situation, to say the least.
Jorge Candeias, 13 may 2001

This flag is neither the actual flag of "Liga Veneta" (= Northern League Venetian section), nor the flag of the "Serenissimi" ("Serenisimi" in Venetian language), indipendentist movement from Veneto, who became famous in 1997 for having "conquered" for some hours the famous Bell-Tower of St. Mark in Venice.
The "Serenissima" (or "Serenisima" in Venetian) was the flag of the Repubblica di Venezia ("Repiovega de Venesia" in Venetian: the Venetian language, often but wrongly considered an "Italian dialect" was the official language of that State) and always showed a lion holding a book with the Latin words "PAX TIBI MARCE EVANGELISTA MEVS" (Peace upon You, o Mark!, My Evangelist!) and not a sword. I'm quite sure the variant with the sword was the war flag of the "Serenisima Repiovega de Venesia". I think the error was due to the fact that the "Serenisimi" (maybe) waved a "war flag" over the Bell-Tower of St.Mark, because in their intention it was a "war act" to release Venice from "Italian domination".
Paolo Montanelli, 20 March 2003

See also: Lega Nord Veneto - Liga Veneta


Liga Veneta Repubblica


image from Liga Veneta Repubblica site

I located this political group site in which I found this image of flag. I don't know if such a flag is in use. However, it this site there is a photo of some people holding another flag in some kind of demonstration. This flag looks like the one of the "Serenissima" Republic of Venice.
Dov Gutterman , 15 October 1999