This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website

Lombardy Region (Italy)

Regione Lombardia

Last modified: 2021-09-25 by rob raeside
Keywords: italy | lombardy | lombardia | milan | lega nord |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors



image by Mello Luchtenberg and António Martins-Tuválkin, 8 March 2010



See also:


Overview

The gonfalon and the coat of arms were adopted on the 12th June 1975. The coat of arms is of square shape. It is vert a curvilinear cross argent per bend sinister. The gonfalon is green with a Carroccio (a historical carriage) and the coat of arms in the middle. The proportions are 3:2. The flag, non official, is green with the cross.
Pascal Vagnat, 22 September 1998

The flag usually shown is green with a white device called "Rosa camuna", a kind of cross which should represent a prehistoric drawing made by Camuni, a people who lived in the Lombard Camuna Valley.
The white flag with red cross is the flag of Milano, the major city of Lombardy. It is also used by Lega Nord as its own flag, but in this case there is a blue warrior over the cross.
Giuseppe Bottasini, 22 November 1995

A collection of stamps issued by Lega Nord shows for Lombardia a flag with a red cross on a white field having the typical blue Visconti snake.
Mario Fabretto, 20 September 1996

The Lombardy flags that I have seen all had a distinctly bluish green shade.
M. Schmöger, 8 March 2010

The stylized rose camuna on the coat of arms of the region is in silver, to symbolize the light. In the background, the green color represents the Po Valley. Adopted officially together with the banner through Legge Regionale n°85 (English: Regional Law No. 85) of June 12, 1975, a bill introduced by the proposition of the then councilor for culture Sandro Fontana, and designed in the same year by Pino Tovaglia, Bob Noorda, Roberto Sambonet and Bruno Munari (source: Giorgio Fioravanti. Il dizionario del grafico. Bologna, Zanichelli, 1993, p. 468. ISBN 88-08-14116-0)
Source: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simboli_della_Lombardia

Now, that Regional Law (http://normelombardia.consiglio.regione.lombardia.it) states the following:
LEGGE REGIONALE 12 giugno 1975 , N. 85 (Regional Law of June 12, 1975, No. 85)
Lo stemma e il gonfalone della regione (Shield (Coat of Arms) and Region's banner)
(BURL n. 24, 1ş suppl. del 12 Giugno 1975 ) (Published in the June 12, 1975 issue No. 1)

Art. 1. (Article 1)
Stemma della Regione. (Shield of the Region)
1. La Regione Lombardia assume come proprio stemma il simbolo costituito da una croce curvilinea argentea in campo verde inclinata in senso orario. (The Lombardy Region assumes as its emblem the symbol consisting of a silver curvilinear cross in a green field inclined clockwise.)
Art. 2. (Article 2)
Gonfalone della Regione. (Banner of the Region)
1. Il gonfalone della Regione, di colore verde e delle dimensioni di metri 3 x 2, riproduce il Carroccio e lo S temma regionale. (The banner of the Region, of green color and having the dimensions of 3 x 2 meters, reproduces the Carroccio and the regional S temma.)
2. La cravatta e i nastri sono nei colori nazionali.

The official colors in RGB format are:
R:0 G:160 B: 64 (green)
R:255 G:255 B:255 (white)
Hence, no particular shade of green, nor pigmentation, nor chemical application is found, at least on official documents.
Esteban Rivera, 27 February 2018


Proposals for New Flag

2002 Proposal

In the region of Lombardy, a flag draft was suggested on 27 March 2002. The flag has the proportions 3:5 (the text says that those is width of the flag 1.66 time (sic) the height), is white with a red cross. The width cross is 1/10 the width of the flag. In the bill it is located that "the flag is a historical flag for Lombardy. This flag is still older and belongs to the world of the cross knights. The flag is indeed a banner with the sinking George cross that the Lombardian knights had planted on the wall of Jerusalem". The law regulates also the use of the flag on and in official buildings.
Two remarks: the today's flag of the region Lombardy, which is unfortunately not official, is green with the white "rosa camuna". I find this flag more interesting than the simple white flag with the red cross, which regards much too much to different flags, like that from England, etc. I don't know which party suggested the flag law, belongs, but the bill has the taste of the "Lega north", thus the party of Umberto Bossi. The flag of the Lega is already a white flag with the red cross and also a blue knight. The bill can be seen at <www.consiglio.regione.lombardia.it>.
Pascal Vagnat, 9 July 2002


2016 Proposals

image located by Federico Valsecchi, 9 February 2018

According to what I found from Italian sources it seem that it aims to be a politically neutral flag compared to the heavily political white and green flag of Padania used by Lega Nord. I don't know if it's used by some particular movements at the moment. Here are some sources I found about it:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Northern_Italy.png
https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/6xz0tj/a_flag_for_northern_italy/
https://maxsetti87.deviantart.com/art/Flag-of-Padania-Bandiera-Padana-680002683
https://avantilombardia.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/proposta-per-una-bandiera-lombarda/comment-page-1/
Federico Valsecchi, 9 February 2018

A proposal of Lombard flag was presented on 5 July 2016 by Gianlucha Zanchi on the blog of the Lombard independentist movement Avanti Lombardia. Zanchi was a member of the board of Avanti Lombardi, which announced on 29 May 2017 its merger into another independentist  movement, Pro Lombardia Independenza (PLI) (https://avantilombardia.wordpress.com/2017/05/29/avanti-lombardia-confluisce-in-pro-lombardia-indipendenza, Avanti Lombardia blog).

Zanchi recalls that Lombardy still has no official flag, the Rosa Camuna flag, adopted in 1975, being a registered trademark of the Regional Council. Several proposals were presented over the last years:
- the St. George's Cross, as the historical emblem of the Lombard League that defeated Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in Legnano on 29 May 1176;
- the banner of arms of the Visconti lineage, as the symbol of the Duchy of Milan, which covers a great part of present-day's Lombardy;
- various proposals mixing the St. George's Cross and the Rosa Camuna (see below);
- granting an official status to the Rosa Camuna flag.
In the past, Avanti Lombardia supported the latter proposal, pushing the Rosa Camuna as the glag of "New Lombardy", representing all Lombards whatever their political views. However, the proposal, like the other ones, appear to have been ignored by the Regional Council.

Accordingly, Zanchi developed a proposal imagined by Marco Avanzi, another member of the board of Avanti Lombardia. On the model of North European flags, the St. George's Cross is put on a green background representing the Po Plain, with a white fimbriation around the cross.
This design is unique (distinct from the English flag), is new and original (never used by any political group), and directly connected with the Lombard history (as opposed to the Rosa Camuna flag). The width of the red cross is 1/8 of the flag's hoist. The width of the white fimbriation is 1/16 of the flag's hoist. The colors are given as Red: RGB 208 20 44; White: RGB 255 255 255; Green: RGB 0 160 64.

The proposal yielded comments criticizing the use of the Italian colors (of the "Italian invaders", says one). Some constructive suggestions were made:
- to remove the red cross, and keep only a white cross on a green field;
- to change the red cross to a blue one. Blue would represent the lakes, white the glaciers, and green the plain;
- to stick to the St. George's Cross on a white field:
- to complement the St. George's Cross on a white field with a red Sun of the Alps in canton, as proposed by Gilberto Oneto
https://avantilombardia.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/proposta-per-una-bandiera-lombarda/comment-page-1, Avanti Lombardia blog, 5 July 2016

Zanchi's first proposal

image by Ivan Sache, 10 February 2018

Zanchi's second proposal

image by Ivan Sache, 10 February 2018

Gianlucha Zanchi presented a second proposal on 16 August 2016, still on the blog of Avanti Lombardia. The proposed design features, in a quartered arrangement, the two most representative symbols of Lombardy, the St. George's Cross (historic Lombardy) on a white background and the Rosa Camuna (administrative Lombardy) on a green background.

2015 proposal

image by Ivan Sache, 10 February 2018

In March 2015, the center-right majority at the Regional Council "appeared to be interested" in a proposal combining the St. George's Cross on a white background, covering 1/6 of the flag's length and the Rosa Camuna on a green background, the two field separated by a golden yellow fimbriation of 1/60 the flag's length.
http://www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/cronaca/2015/03/12/lombardia-verso-una-nuova-bandiera_5e0cfd94-3479-4312-bc69-4ba716ac890f.html Aggenzia ANSA, 12 March 2015
Ivan Sache, 10 February 2018


The Gonfalona

image by Mello Luchtenberg, 14 September 2001

I located a photo of the gonfalone at <www.regione.lombardia.it>.
Jarig Bakker, 14 March 2001


Provisional Central Government of Lombardy (1848)

image resized from Wikipedia

Wikipedia has a large page on the national flag:    
This flag in question is shown in Wikipedia as belonging to the Provisional Central Government of Lombardy (8 Apr 1848 - 2 Aug 1848). The motto appears on coins as well
Jan Mertens, 22 March 2009

I guess, the original of the colour intended - presumably, the green coloured material have degraded in shade with years and the actual example of the flag that is (or was, at some point?) preserved have this brownish-yellow-khaki shade.
Željko Heimer, 27 March 2009


LGBT flags

  image by Tomislav Todorovic, 24 August 2021

An LGBT flag, derived from the regional flag by repainting its field into the rainbow colors, is being introduced in Lombardy. Its earliest currently known photos, taken in June 2018, display the flags with red at the top [1, 2]. The flag with identical design was seen again in December same year [3]. In June 2019, the flag with violet at the top was used [4], making it another flag with "no right side up". No newer appearances of the flag are currently known; the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, Lombardy being one of regions which were affected the worst, has hindered the flag introduction by complete absence of events at which it would have been used.

Sources:
[1] Alamy photo archive - Photo from Milano Pride Parade, on 2018-06-30: https://www.alamy.com/milan-italy-30th-jun-2018-political-group-of-people-holding-peace-flags-and-protesting-during-the-gay-pride-parade-milan-italy-june-30-2018-credit-gentian-polovinaalamy-live-news-image210657913.html
[2] Shutterstock photo archive - Photo from Milano Pride Parade, on 2018-06-30: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-people-holding-peace-flags-protesting-1124236061
[3] Milano Pride at Facebook - Photo from Rainbow Christmas gathering, uploaded on 2018-12-16: https://www.facebook.com/milanopride/photos/a.2061110000593682/2061110397260309/?type=3
[4] Milano Pride at Facebook - Photo from Milano Pride Parade, on 2019-06-28: https://www.facebook.com/milanopride/photos/a.2356587481045931/2356591697712176/?type=3

Tomislav Todorovic, 24 August 2021