Meanings of the colours

An Italian flag patch.

The first entity to use the Italian flag was the Cispadane Republic in 1796, after Napoleon's army crossed Italy. During this time, many small republics based on the Jacobian model, were formed and almost all used the French tricolour with different colours. The colours chosen by the Cispadane Republic were red and white, the colours of the Flag of Milan, and green which was the colour of the uniform of the Lombard Legion.

Some have tried to attribute some particular values to the colours and a common interpretation is that the green represents the country's plains and the hills; white, the snowy Alps; and red, the blood spilt in the Italian Independence wars. A more religious interpretation is that the green represents hope, the white represents faith and the red represents charity. This interpretation references the three theological virtues.

History

When, in 1794 the French Army led by Napoleon Bonaparte entered Italy, both the new republic (Repubblica Transpadana, Transpadane Republic) and the military group attached to French army adopted flags similar to the Italian tricolour. Probably, the colours have been chosen according to Legione Lombarda flag: it summed Milan city colours (red and white) to the green of Milan Civic Guard uniforms. The same colours were adopted by the Legione Italiana, formed by soldiers coming from Emilia and Romagna.


The eighteenth-century Sala del Tricolore, now site of the Reggio Emilia Town Council. Here, on 7 January 1797, the first tricolour of the Repubblica Cispadana was adopted.

The first official Italian tricolour was adopted on 7 January 1797, in Reggio Emilia, as official flag of the Repubblica Cispadana (Cispadane Republic). It was a horizontal tricolour, with red (top), white and green stripes; in the middle, an emblem composed by a quiver, accolade to a war trophy, with four arrows that symbolized the four provinces forming the Po federation; all within a crown of bay.

The Repubblica Cispadana and the Repubblica Transpadana merged into the Repubblica Cisalpina (Cisalpine Republic), which adopted the vertical Italian tricolour without emblem in 1798, even if in a square shape. The flag was maintained until 1802, after the republic was renamed Repubblica Italiana (Italian Republic); in 1802 a new square flag was adopted, with a red field carrying a white rhombus and a green square in the middle of the white rhombus.

In 1799, the Republic of Lucca came under French influence, and adopted as flag a green-white-red horizontal tricolour, up to 1801.

In 1805, after Napoleon had crowned himself French Emperor, the Repubblica Italiana was transformed into the Regno d'Italia (Kingdom of Italy), ruled by Napoleon himself; the flag of the Regno d'Italia was the Repubblica Italiana flag in rectangular shape, with Napoleon's eagle on the central white square. This flag was in use until the abdication of Napoleon in 1814.