Sewn to measure. On time. Every time.
Sewn to measure. On time. Every time.
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City of Messina Flag

SKU: B20 Category: Portfolio:

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33,70 €
each.incl. VAT
Shipping to Italy · 00187: calculating…
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At your door Monday 9 November — Standard

Order within 18 h 54 min to keep this date

On time, or we pay

Express late: full refund, the flags are yours

Standard/Economy late: 10% back as store credit

60 days
return
24 months
warranty
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Configuration

Delivery

ExpressWed 4 Novat your door
StandardMon 9 Novat your door
EconomyFri 20 Novat your door

Specifications

Description

City of Messina Flag

A gold cross on red: the Messina flag

The flag of Messina is simple and bright: a red field crossed by a large gold cross running from edge to edge. These are the colours and the design of the city's shield, the same ones the people of Messina have recognised for centuries on buildings, on documents and at festivals.

The city's shield

The Comune's Statute describes Messina's coat of arms like this: a shield topped by a crown and surrounded by two vine branches with bunches of grapes, bearing a gold cross on a vermilion red field. The flag takes the shield and spreads it across the cloth: no crown, no vines, just the cross and the red, which read clearly even from far away.

The legend of the emperor

Where the gold cross comes from, nobody knows for certain. It is said that an emperor of the East, rescued by Messina's ships and soldiers in a moment of danger, gave the city his own banner, red with a gold cross. Tradition calls him Arcadius; others think of a different emperor. It is a legend, but it says a lot about how Messina has always seen itself: a proud and generous city of the sea.

A city on the Strait

Messina looks across the Strait to Calabria. Founded by the Greeks under the name Zancle, meaning «sickle» for the shape of its natural harbour, it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, the last after the earthquake and tsunami of 1908. Each time, its gold cross has stayed as the sign of a city that gets back on its feet.

Red and yellow at festival time

Red and gold also return in the Comune's gonfalone, divided into two fields, purple red above and Naples yellow below. The Messina flag comes out on 3 June, the feast of the Madonna della Lettera, protector of the city, with the procession leaving from Piazza Duomo, and on 15 August, when the Vara, the great votive float of the Assumption, crosses the city drawn by the gomene, its great ropes, all the way to Piazza Duomo.

Who chooses it

For anyone from Messina or with roots on the Strait, for Messina families who emigrated to the North and abroad, for the Comune and its offices, for schools, for those who follow the Vara and the feast of the Madonna della Lettera, for fans of Messina, for a pastry shop, a rosticceria or a shop of Sicilian products, for anyone who wants to take home a memory of the city. We sew it to order, in the size and fabric you choose above, and you see the delivery date before you pay.

Flag facts

Official name
Città di Messina
Validity
Current
Years in use
unknown · period Before 1500
Type
Civic
ISO code
IT-ME
Use
Not applicable
Proportions
2:3
Number of colours
2
Colour
RedYellow

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