Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Monaco Flag And The Flag Company Inc

By Albert Frank


Monaco is a tiny, hilly wedge driven into the French Mediterranean coast; it is 9 mi east of Nice, France. The Phoenicians, and after them the Greeks, had a temple on the Monacan headland honoring Hercules. The principality took its name from Monoikos, the Greek surname for this mythological hero.

Known to have the oldest national flag designs all over the world, the flag of Monaco is popular for its equal and horizontal bands of color. The colors present in this flag are red, which is situated on top, and white. Both are known to be the heraldic colors since 1339 in the House of Grimaldi.

After being independent for 800 years, Monaco was annexed to France in 1793 and placed under Sardinia's protection in 1815. By the Franco-Monegasque treaty of 1861, Monaco went under French guardianship but continued to be independent. A treaty made with France in 1918 contained a clause providing that, in the event that the male Grimaldi dynasty should die out, Monaco would become an autonomous state under French protection.

The present flag of Monaco, however, is still created similarly to that of the older version. It still bore the colors red and white, which are divided horizontally. The only difference is that the original flag contained an older version of the coat of arms of Monaco.

The complex princely coat of arms, whose chief design elements date back hundreds of years, is represented in full on a white flag for display on government buildings. The shield in the princely arms, from which the livery colors are derived, consists of alternating red and white lozenges, or diamonds. As is the case with many heraldic devices, the original meaning of the lozenges is not clear.

Red and white were the heraldic colors of the ruling Grimaldi family. The colors appear as a diamond shaped pattern on the shield of the family's coat of arms. The Flag Company Inc specialized in flag designs offered a special edition of decals and flags to memorize the history of Monaco Flag for the future.




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