Three Flags: San Marino, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein
An (occasionally) reoccurring feature on flags
You might think this seems like a relatively random collection of flags to focus on this month, but then you haven’t been paying attention to the riveting group stage action in the UEFA Nations League. Group D consists of, you guessed it: San Marino, Gibraltar and Liechtenstein. On September 5th, 2024, San Marino did something they hadn’t done in 20 years and had never done before in a competitive match: they won a game.
I follow enough soccer-related things on social media that I’ve seen the occasional post from the San Marino fan account (@SanMarino_FA) float by me. I have no idea who the person behind the account is. I just know that they are quite possibly the biggest fan of San Marino’s national team and watching them react in real time to their victory over Liechtenstein I could not be happier for them.
First up, San Marino:
San Marino is the first flag that I’ve come across that doesn’t have a lot of specificity when it comes to its origins. It was standardized on Jul 22nd, 2011— but the origin of the tricolor is believed to be from sometime in the 19th Century. There are earlier versions of the flag:
The oldest attested standard of the republic dates back from 4 September 1465, when it was commissioned from a manufacturer in Florce, allegedly composed of a tricolor of gold, white and '“alessandrino” (thought to be purple, recently re-interpreted as a shade of azure).
The white on the flag represents peace and the light blue/azure stands for liberty. The Coat of Arms has been around since the 14th Century but was officially established on April 6th, 1862. Inside the shield, you have three towers on three green mountains. The towers are decorated with a weather vane in the symbol of an ostrich feather and represent the three citadels of San Marino (La Guaita, La Cesta, and La Montale) while the hills are for the summit of Monte Titano. The motto below (‘LIBERTAS’) means freedom (not a surprise) and you’ve got an oak and laurel branch for the stability of the Republic and the defense of liberty. The crown on top is a symbol of sovereignty (as San Marino has never been into the whole monarchy thing- and I do mean never.)
The origins of this Republic date back to 301. Yes, 301. Saint Marinus, a stone mason was in nearby Rimini to help them rebuild their walls after their destruction by pirates. When local authorities weren’t crazy about his Christian sermons, he moved inland a bit and founded an independent monastic community on Monte Titano in 301. And that’s how San Marino lays claim to being both the oldest sovereign state in the world and its oldest constitutional republic.
Next up, Gibraltar:
Gibraltar has a cool flag and I think I would go so far as to say it might be the coolest British Adjacent Flag along with the Isle of Man. (One’s a British Overseas Territory, the other is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, so I had to make my list to put them both on.) It’s also unique in a couple of ways: Wikipedia calls it ‘an elongated banner of arms’ based on the coat of arms granted by Queen Isabella I of Castille in 1502. (I’m going to guess there are more than a few coats of arms granted by British monarchs that feature on various flags, probably not so many for Spanish monarchs.) It’s also the only British Overseas Territory that does not feature the Union Jack in any form.
The flag was officially adopted on November 8, 1982. The castle featured on the flag does not represent any in Gibraltar currently, but is supposed to stand for the fortress of Gibraltar. The key is said to symbolize the strategic significance of Gibraltar as it was seen as ‘the Key to Spain’ by the Moors and Spanish back in the 1500s and later as ‘the Key to the Mediterranean’ by the British.
Their National Team has enjoyed a touch more success than San Marino’s has— they managed a 0-0 draw against Wales in a friendly in June, beat Andorra 1-0 in another friendly in September, and managed another 2-2 draw against Liechtenstein this past week in UEFA Nations League action. (In the category of ‘cool things that float up on the Internet from time to time, all I can offer is this video of the road that crosses the main runway at Gibraltar International Airport- though every so often, the Royal Marines do storm a Spanish beach by mistake and that’s always fun.)
Honestly, I would go visit Gibraltar— I don’t think I’ve sat down and made an official Bucket List of places I’d like to see, but if I ever do, Gibraltar would make the cut.
Finally, Liechtenstein:
I honestly didn’t know much about Liechtenstein other than that it was sort of attached to the eastern side of Switzerland and had a reputation for being a tax haven for billionaires. (Per Wikipedia, it’s working hard to change that.) It’s also a double-landlocked country (a landlocked country surrounded by landlocked countries) and it’s the smallest country in the world to border two countries (Austria and Switzerland) and it’s one of few countries in the world with no debt. (I’m guessing its size, strong financial sector, and that tax haven reputation it’s trying to shed probably have something to do with that.)
History-wise, I was surprised to learn that it’s been around for a while. Various dynasties fought over the region in the 1200s. Still, by 1273 the Holy Roman Empire assumed control over the area of what was to become Liechtenstein, and it was granted ‘imperial immediacy’ in 1396- so it became subject to the Holy Roman Emperor alone. It was also— and yes, the intricacies of figuring out the polity that was the Holy Roman Empire give me a headache— enfeoffed to the Counts of Hohenems until the sale to the Liechtenstein dynasty in 1699.
But it wasn’t until 1719 that Liechtenstein became a full member state of the Holy Roman Empire.
I think the reason that I probably was surprised at the tenacity of Liechtenstein is the broad swathe of European history that follows 1719. Somehow they managed to weave their way through Napoleon, two world wars, and the Cold War and are still very much a thing- so, congratulations for that! (Legit, though: that’s a lot of history for a small country to tapdance their way through and survive in one piece.)
Let’s talk about their flag. A new constitution for Liechtenstein came into effect in 1921 which recognized a blue and red horizontal bicolor as the national flag. But fifteen years later, during the 1936 Summer Olympics, they realized that their flag was identical to Haiti’s1- and added a gold crown to distinguish the two. (This is the 2nd funniest thing to happen during the 1936 Summer Olympics, the first was Jesse Owens winning four Olympic Gold Medals.)
The origin of the colors dates back to the period between 1719 (its appearance as a principality within the Holy Roman Empire) and its complete independence in 1866. Gold and red features on the Coat of Arms, but at some point along the way, Prince Joseph Wenzel started using the new livery colors of blue and red. The gold crown signifies its position as a principality while “the blue represents the sky while red alludes to the ‘evening fires’ that are lit inside houses throughout the country.”
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That’s all I’ve got for this installment of Three Flags. If you like it, let me know in the comments and if you too, have someone who loves flags in your life, send them this post and tell ‘em to subscribe! I’m always looking for more readers.
Haiti must have come to the same conclusion as Liechtenstein at some point because they added their coat of arms in a white box to the center of their flag.