The Monaco flag, a coat of arms with two friars and an anthem in Monegasque

Monaco’s flag is one of the simplest in Europe, two bands and two colours, and it still says a great deal if you know how to read it. Behind it lies a coat of arms with two armed friars, a motto from 1458 and an anthem sung in a language barely spoken beyond the Rock. I cover the lot using what the Constitution, the government and the Palace say, and leave out what I have not been able to confirm. The overview of the country is in my guide to Monaco.

Two equal bands, with red always on top

The official description fits in a single line. Article 7 of the Constitution says the flag is made up of two equal horizontal bands of red and white, with the red at the top. That is all. No shield in the middle, no border and no other figure in the version the law sets out.

Prince Charles III fixed it in 1881, which makes a lot of sense to me, because he was the prince behind the big nineteenth-century decisions. Under him Monaco lost Menton and Roquebrune, named Monte-Carlo in 1866, created the Order of Saint-Charles in 1858 and issued its first stamps in 1885. The flag arrives in the middle of all that, when the country needed to reassert itself after being left with a tenth of its territory. I tell that story in the history of Monaco.

Why red and white?

The government explains it like this. Red and white come from the Grimaldi coat of arms and recall those of the Republic of Genoa, the city the family came from. That fits, since Monaco’s story begins with Genoese factions fighting each other over a rock.

A second explanation does the rounds too, linking the red to the blood of Sainte Dévote, the Principality’s patron saint. The government mentions it, but presents it as what it is, a poetic reading. I like to tell it that way, as a pretty legend beside the serious fact rather than the other way round.

Monaco, Indonesia and Poland

Then there is the comparison everyone makes the moment they see the flag, with Indonesia and with Poland. I am going to be straight about it rather than repeat what circulates. I have not found an official source setting out the differences, and Monaco’s Constitution does not fix the proportions of the cloth, only the two equal bands and which colour goes on top. Any measurement I gave you would be second-hand.

What I can tell you with confidence is the Monegasque side. Red over white, two bands of the same height, nothing else on the version defined in law, and in force since 1881. If you are telling it apart from a similar flag at a sporting event, that is all the Constitution commits to.

A coat of arms held up by two friars with swords

If the flag is simple, the coat of arms is the opposite. The Palace describes it in heraldic language. The shield, lozengy of silver and gules, which in plain English is a red and white diamond pattern, is ringed by the collar of the Order of Saint-Charles, set on a red mantle lined with ermine and topped by the princely crown.

The best part is at the sides. Two friars minor, with hair, beards and shoes, each raise a sword, and beneath their feet runs a ribbon with the motto. It is a nod to what François Grimaldi, nicknamed Malizia, did in January 1297, when he entered the fortress on the Rock dressed as a Franciscan monk with weapons hidden under his habit and took it from the Ghibellines. The family has been showing off that trick on its arms for more than seven centuries, and I think it is one of the best heraldic stories in Europe. Who its descendants are today is covered in the Grimaldi family.

Deo Juvante, and an anthem in Monegasque

The motto on the arms is Deo Juvante, “with God’s help”. The government credits it to Lambert Grimaldi, who in 1458 foiled a conspiracy and secured oaths of loyalty from Monaco, Menton and Roquebrune. It has been the family’s motto ever since and, with the family, the state’s. If you want to take the arms home without spending anything, they are on the national side of the 1, 2 and 5 cent coins in all three series of Monegasque euros, covered in Monaco euro coins.

The anthem has a history of reworkings that I find rather endearing. It began as a patriotic song by Théophile Bellando in the 1840s, was later touched up by the composer Castil-Blaze at the invitation of Prince Florestan I, and then by Charles Albrecht. The orchestration played today is by Léon Jéhin, who conducted the orchestra of the Monte-Carlo Opera. The decisive change came in 1928, when Louis Notari wrote words in Monegasque, and that is the version sung at official ceremonies even though French is the state language. The title that circulates online does not appear on the official pages I have read, so I leave it out.

When to see the symbols on the street

No official source I have read records exactly where the flag flies. What I can tell you is when the country dresses in red and white. 27 January is Sainte Dévote, with a pontifical Mass in the cathedral, and on the eve the Prince sets fire to a boat on the Quai Albert Ier. 19 November is National Day, set by Rainier III on the feast of the Blessed Rainier of Arezzo and kept by Albert II.

And on any day of the year, at 11:55, the Prince’s Carabiniers change over in front of the Palace’s main gate. It is the closest thing to a state ceremony you can see for free, and it has a page of its own, the changing of the guard.