Switzerland’s canton flags
Twenty-six cantons, every flag square like the national one, and nearly all of them old coats of arms: bears, keys, croziers, a bull and a saint.
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Switzerland grew out of a league of small states, and its cantons still fly their own flags alongside the national one. Most are simply their coat of arms stretched to fill a square, the same shape as the Swiss flag itself. Several are just two colours, which makes them the hardest to tell apart.
The founders
Schwyz
Plain red with a small white cross in the corner. The canton gave Switzerland its name, and its flag is where the national flag comes from.
Uri
A black bull’s head with a red ring through its nose, on yellow.
Obwalden
Red over white, with a single key. Obwalden and Nidwalden together were Unterwalden, one of the three founding cantons.
Nidwalden
A white double key on red.
Split in two
Basel-Stadt
A black bishop’s crozier on white. Basel split into city and countryside in 1833.
Basel-Landschaft
The crozier again, in red, turned the other way and with a spiky crook.
Appenzell Innerrhoden
A black bear on white. Appenzell split in 1597 into a Catholic half, Innerrhoden, and a Protestant one, Ausserrhoden.
Appenzell Ausserrhoden
The same bear, with the letters V and R either side of it, for Ausserrhoden.
Jura
A red crozier beside red and white stripes. Jura split from Bern in 1979, the youngest canton.
Plain colours
Six cantons fly nothing but two colours. These are the ones to learn by heart.
Zürich
White and blue, split on the diagonal.
Lucerne
White over blue.
Zug
A blue band between two white ones.
Fribourg
Black over white.
Solothurn
Red over white.
Ticino
Red over blue.
Beasts
Bern
A black bear walking up a yellow band across red. Bern is named for the bear, the story goes.
Schaffhausen
A leaping black ram on yellow, a pun on the name: Schaf is German for sheep.
Thurgau
Two gold lions on a white and green diagonal.
Graubünden
Three old leagues in one flag: black and white, a yellow and blue cross, and a leaping ibex.
Keys, saints and mottos
Geneva
Half an eagle and a gold key, for the Empire and Saint Peter.
Glarus
Saint Fridolin with his staff and book, on red. It is the only canton flag with a person on it.
St. Gallen
A fasces, the bundle of rods and axe, on green.
Aargau
Wavy white lines on black for its rivers, and three white stars on blue.
Valais
Red and white halves with thirteen stars, one for each of its old districts.
Vaud
White over green, with “Liberté et Patrie” written across the top. The only canton flag with words.
Neuchâtel
Green, white and red, with a small white cross in the corner. A republican flag, not a coat of arms.
On the globe
SwitzerlandMore flags
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