Flag of Sicily


The flag of Sicily shows a triskeles symbol, and at its centre a Gorgoneion and a pair of wings and three wheat ears.

Description

The flag is characterized by the presence of the triskeles in its middle, the head of Medusa and three wheat ears, representing the extreme fertility of the land of Sicily, The triskelion symbol is said to represent the three capes ; Pachynus ; and Lilybæum, which form three points of a triangle from the historical three valli of the island.
The flag is bisected diagonally into regions colored red and yellow, red representing lava, yellow representing wheat
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History

The Triskeles-with-Gorgoneion symbol is found in antiquity, depicted on coins minted in Syracuse in the 4th century BC.
The emblem was included in the design of the Army Gold Medal awarded to British Army majors and above who had taken a key part in the Battle of Maida.
It was used in combination with the Italian tricolore in the Sicilian revolution of 1848.
It was at this time referred to as "the sign of the Trinacria", Sicily being referred to by its ancient name,
Trinacria. The name had been revived during the Aragonese period of the Kingdom of Sicily following the Sicilian Vespers.
Apparently from this use, Trinacria came to be re-interpreted as a name for the symbol itself.
The diagonal division in red and yellow goes back to 1943, when it was used by the separatist movement led by Andrea Finocchiaro Aprile.
The addition of a pair of wings to the head of the Gorgon is modern, the three ears of corn were added in the 1940s.
A gonfalon combining the coats of arms of Norman Sicily, the Hohenstaufen emperors and the Aragonese kingdom of Sicily with the triskeles emblem was adopted by the Sicilian Regional Assembly in 1990. The present design became the official public flag of the Autonomous Region of Sicily on 4 January 2000, after the passing of an apposite law which advocates its use on public buildings, schools, city halls, and all the other places in which Sicily is represented.

Historical flags

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