Flag of Peru

What the flag of Peru looks like

The Peruvian flag has three vertical stripes of equal width: red at the hoist, white in the middle and red at the fly. The proportions are 2:3. The red is a bright, slightly warm red, and the white is plain.

Peru uses more than one version of the flag, which is a frequent source of confusion:

• The national (civil) flag is the plain red-white-red triband. Ordinary citizens can fly it.
• The state flag and the war flag have the national coat of arms in the center of the white stripe. They are used by the government, the armed forces and official bodies.

The coat of arms shows a shield divided into three fields. In the top left is a vicuña, a relative of the llama, on a light blue field. The top right shows a cinchona tree (the source of quinine) on a white field, and the lower field is red with a golden cornucopia spilling out gold coins. The shield is surrounded by a laurel wreath on one side and a palm branch on the other, and an oak-leaf crown tops it. Together, the three fields stand for the country's animal, plant and mineral wealth.

The small version of the flag is shown as the Peru flag emoji, which uses the plain version. You can also get an image from the download page.

Peruvian flag meaning and symbolism

The most popular story is about José de San Martín, the Argentine general who led the liberation of Peru. According to the Peruvian author Abraham Valdelomar, San Martín arrived on the southern coast near Pisco in 1820 and was inspired by the colors of the parihuanas, red-and-white flamingos. Other historians suggest he took the red from the flag of Chile and the white from the flag of Argentina, recognizing the origin of the men of the liberation army. The symbolism of the original colors is uncertain.

The usual explanation is that red represents the blood spilled by the fallen freedom fighters and white represents purity and peace, though the reasons red and white were chosen are unknown.

The elements of the coat of arms have clearer meanings. The vicuña stands for the animal kingdom, the cinchona tree for the plant kingdom and the cornucopia for minerals and the country's wealth. The wreath of laurel is a symbol of victory, and the palm branch is a symbol of peace.

History of the Peruvian flag

Before independence, Peru was part of the Spanish Empire and used Spanish banners. José de San Martín created the first flag of the Republic of Peru, decreed on 21 October 1820. It was divided diagonally into four parts, white at the top and bottom and red at the sides, with a laurel crown around a sun rising behind mountains by the sea. Peru declared independence on 28 July 1821. The flag was hard to construct, and in March 1822 Torre Tagle decreed a horizontal red-white-red design with a golden sun; it resembled the Spanish flag from a distance, so on 31 May 1822 it was replaced by a vertical triband with red outer bands, a white middle band and a golden sun.

On 25 February 1825, under Simón Bolívar's administration, the Constituent Congress passed the law of national symbols. The sun was replaced by a new coat of arms, designed by José Gregorio Paredes and Francisco Javier Cortés, placed in the center of the white band. The coat of arms was slightly altered in 1884 after the War of the Pacific.

In 1950 President Manuel A. Odría removed the coat of arms from the civil flag, which was easier to make and used in practice anyway, and created separate state and war flags. There are no official color tones set by law. The national flag is celebrated each year on 7 June, the anniversary of the Battle of Arica (1880), which is the Day of the Flag. Peru's national holidays, the Fiestas Patrias, are held on 28 and 29 July, when flags are flown across the country.

Flags that look like the Peruvian flag

The closest flag is the flag of Canada, which also has red bands on either side of a white band. The Canadian flag has a maple leaf in the center and its bands are in a 1:2:1 ratio, so the white is twice as wide as each red band. Peru's three bands are equal in width. The flag of Austria is another red-white-red flag, but its stripes are horizontal.