National Flag of the Italian Republic (1946)

The Italian tricolour was first introduced to represent the French controlled Lombardy region of northern Italy in 1796 and then used by Napoleon Bonaparte’s Cisalpine Republic in 1797. 

The Italian colours were adopted at the turn of the 19th century by the Italian Republic, which later became the Kingdom of Italy.

In 1848, the King of Sardinia reintroduced the vertical striped green-white-red tricolour, featuring his coat of arms, for all the areas under his control. 

When the Italian Kingdom was established in 1861, it adopted the Italian tricolour, with the addition of the royal arms in the centre white panel, as the national flag to represent a united Italy. 

In 1946 the monarchy was abolished and a republic was proclaimed, the arms were removed from the flag and the plain tricolour retained. 

The current flag dates from the 19th of June 1946.

The Symbolic Meaning

The Italian flag is patterned after the French national flag. 

Different accounts are given to explain the history of the Italian green-white-red colours. One account suggests the colours may be based on military uniforms from Milan. 

Another is that Napoleon Bonaparte replaced the blue of the French flag with green because he liked the colour.