The Netherlands’ province flags
Twelve provinces: plain tricolours, a checkerboard, red lions, water-lily leaves and a lion swimming out of the sea.
12 flagsShort notes, not sourcedSuggest a correction
The Netherlands has twelve provinces, and each flies its own flag. Holland, the name often used for the whole country, is really just two of them: North Holland and South Holland.
Several are simple stripes, which makes them easy to mix up. The ones with pictures are easier, and two of them tell you what the province is about: Zeeland’s lion fights the sea, and Flevoland is land drained out of it.
Stripes
Two of these are three plain horizontal bands. Learn the order.
North Holland
Yellow, red, blue.
Gelderland
Blue, yellow, black.
Overijssel
Red, yellow, a wavy blue line, yellow, red. The blue line is a river.
Utrecht
White over red, with a white cross on red in the top corner.
Drenthe
Red stripes top and bottom on white, and between them a black castle with three red stars either side.
Flevoland
Blue over green, split by a wavy yellow line, with a white fleur-de-lis in the corner. A lily (lelie) for Cornelis Lely, the engineer behind the drainage that made the province: Flevoland is land reclaimed from the sea, and the newest province, formed in 1986.
Patterns
North Brabant
A red and white checkerboard.
Groningen
A green cross edged in white, with red and blue quarters.
Friesland
Blue and white diagonal stripes, with red heart shapes on the white. They are pompeblêden, water-lily leaves, a Frisian symbol.
Lions
South Holland
A red lion on yellow: the old lion of the Counts of Holland.
Limburg
White, a thin blue band and yellow, with a red lion over all three.
Zeeland
Wavy blue and white stripes, with a shield showing a lion half out of the water. The motto under it in the coat of arms is Luctor et emergo, “I struggle and emerge”.
On the globe
NetherlandsMore flags
- Argentina’s province flags
- Australia’s state and territory flags
- Belgium’s regional and provincial flags
- Brazil’s state flags
- Canada’s provincial and territorial flags
- Flags of autonomous regions and islands
- Flags of disputed territories
- Flags of former countries
- Flags of international organizations
- Flags of the British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies
- Flags of the Dutch Caribbean
- France’s regional and overseas flags
- Germany’s state flags
- Ireland’s province flags
- Italy’s regional flags
- Japan’s prefectural flags
- Liberia’s county flags
- Mexico’s state flags
- Russia’s regional flags
- Spain’s regional flags
- Switzerland’s canton flags
- U.S. state flags