The History of the Flag of Poland

by Bartosz Spytkowski April 29, 2018

Flag of Poland is probably the most famous symbol of Poland. It has two variants. Simple one, consisting of two horizontal stripes, the upper one white, the lower one red, and variant with the national coat of arms in the middle of upper stripe. Both are legally recognized.

First flags, used by the Kingdom of Poland, usually consisted of image quite similar to Polish coat of arms – white crowned eagle on red/crimson background.

Royal banner of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had white stripe, but in the middle of two stripes of red. It had the coat of arms of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the middle, and in the middle of that the coat of arms of ruling King.

Before the partitions, Poland has traditionally had three national colors: white, crimson and navy blue, which were popularly used in cavalry uniforms and banners. White and red were first used as national colors during celebration of The Constitution of 3 May 1791, first constitution of Poland, adopted only 4 years before the Third Partition, as two colors as the coat of arms of Poland. Stashes or clothes in that colors were often worn during celebration.

National colors of Poland, white and red, were first officially recognized during The November Uprising by the Sejm (the lower house) of The Kingdom of Poland. After regaining independence the Sejm of newly reborn Poland introduced white and red flag on August 1, 1919. It stayed in this shape and colors to this day with addition of version with the coat of arms and some changes of shade of red.