Flag of Switzerland

What the flag of Switzerland looks like

The Swiss flag has a red square with a white, equal-armed cross in the center. The arms of the cross do not reach the edge of the flag, and each arm is one sixth longer than it is wide. This proportion is set in the federal rules. The cross is shaped so that its arms are short and heavy, giving it a compact look.

The flag's squareness is unusual. Almost all national flags are rectangular. The national flag of Switzerland, used on land, is square, and the same is true of the flag of Vatican City. Swiss ships at sea fly a rectangular version with a ratio of 2:3, and rectangular versions are also common at sporting events. A square flag is awkward to hang in many venues. See also the Switzerland flag emoji.

Swiss flag meaning and symbolism

The Swiss Federal Council described the cross in 1889 as both the Christian cross symbol and the field sign of the Old Confederacy. The red field is often linked to the solid red war flag of Schwyz, to which the white cross was added. Colors are sometimes said to stand for freedom and honor (white) and the sovereignty of the state (red), but these are later interpretations and not official.

The cross has also been read as a sign of equality between the cantons, since all arms are the same. Switzerland's unofficial motto, Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno ("One for all, all for one"), is not on the flag but is often connected to the same idea of mutual loyalty.

History of the Swiss flag

The white cross as a Swiss sign goes back to the Middle Ages. Soldiers of the early Swiss Confederation wore a white cross on their clothing to tell friend from foe in battle, and its use is first attested at the Battle of Laupen in 1339. The canton of Schwyz carried a red banner, and its name is the origin of the word "Swiss". Over time the white cross on a red field became the common mark of the confederate troops.

For centuries there was no single national flag. The cantons used their own colors, and Swiss regiments abroad flew flags with the cross on many designs, including wavy bands. After the Napoleonic period, the confederacy was restored in 1815, and in 1841 a unified flag with a white cross on a square red field was prescribed for the cantonal infantry regiments. The constitution of 1848, which founded the modern federal state, did not name a national flag but prescribed the federal flag for federal troops.

The proportions of the cross were officially set in 1889, with a federal act on the coat of arms passed on 12 December 1889. The size of the cross relative to the flag was only fixed by the flag law of 2013, in force since 2017, which also defines the flag as square and the red as pure red. The same law restricts commercial use of the Swiss coat of arms.

The Swiss flag and the Red Cross

The emblem of the Red Cross is the Swiss flag with the colors reversed: a red cross on a white field. The International Committee of the Red Cross was founded in Geneva by the Swiss businessman Henri Dunant and others, and the 1864 Geneva Convention adopted the reversed colors as a tribute to Switzerland. The Swiss flag is square, while the Red Cross emblem is usually shown as a rectangle or square with equal arms.

Other flags can look similar: Denmark also has a white cross on red, but the cross is off-center and extends to the edges. Tonga has a red cross on a white canton. Swedish flags have a yellow cross on blue.