“Despuei tugiù a curù russa e gianca”: history of the flag of Monaco
“The colors red and white have always been floating around Monaco, and more particularly on November 19, a national holiday. Made famous by its casino and its very favorable tax rates, the main dress code for oligarchs and billionaires around the world, but also for workers from all over the world who come to seek their fortune. With around 38,000 inhabitants in a territory of 2 square kilometers, the Monegasques represent only 22.45% of the principality’s total population. The French (24.89%) and Italians (21.9%) are the other two main communities living on “the Rock”. Although small in size and number, the principality has nevertheless built a worldwide reputation and its national colors, red and white, are well known.
A flag known all over the world
In Monaco, the principality’s colors are everywhere: on the princely palace, on the casino, in the streets, on the ports of Fontvieille and Hercules, on beaches like the famous one at Larvotto. If the whole world has just visited the city-state – tourism governed by 25% of Monegasque GDP and represented 900,000 overnight stays in the hotel sector in 2019 – Monegasque colors are also exported by the imposing sweet power of the principality.
First of all, the AS Monaco football club, affiliated with the French Football Federation, exports the principality’s red and white colors to all lawns in France and Europe. Eight-time French champion and finalist in the prestigious Champions League in 2004, the Principality’s club is a central element of the sweet power Monegasque. The home jersey of the team has also the quasi-legal obligation to display the colors red and white with the famous diagonal drawn by Princess Grace Kelly. ASM does not only shine on the pitches, the club is also a successful brand, at the end of the 2017-2018 season which sees the club winning the French championship, the red and white tunics sold 200,000 copies, more than Olympique Lyonnais. Remember that the Principality has only 38,000 inhabitants against more than 518,000 inhabitants for the “capital of the Gauls”.
Beyond football, the colors of Monaco are also exported through another major sporting event, the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Monaco. A legendary circuit considered one of the three most prestigious races in the world, it celebrates around 200,000 spectators in the Principality and an average of 1.2 billion viewers. For four days, each year at the end of May, the eyes of the whole world are riveted on the Formula 1 drivers who roam the streets of Monte-Carlo, Port Hercule and La Condamine. The only Formula 1 circuit to be urban, the Monaco Grand Prix has a charm that is unique in the world, widely spread thanks to the reputation of the principality and its colors.
If Monaco is a sporting principality, it is also the cultural prestige of the city which has enabled it to export its mythical red and white flag. Volunteer in this area, the principality has several prestigious cultural venues: first of all the Grimaldi Forum, which hosts the Monaco Philharmonic Orchestra and the meetings of the Nations, but also the Monte-Carlo Opera where the United performs. taller. Finally, the splendid oceanographic museum of Monaco, founded in 1889 by the “learned prince navigator”, Albert I, is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and richest in the world. Monaco is therefore not the principality closed in on itself that we sometimes tend to describe to us. On the contrary, open to the world and bringing the world to it, it is cosmopolitan and its colors are known throughout the world for its international influence.
Monaco: nationless state
The Monegasque identity is unique and testifies to a condensed history of the Mediterranean. Of Ligurian origin – the Monegasque language is still strongly developed – developed by the Greeks who give it the name of Monoikos (Μόνοικος), attached to Narbonne Gaul during the Roman period, then, in turn under the domination of the Holy Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Kingdom of France, attached to the Alpes-Maritimes department after the Revolution, it passes under Sardinian protectorate in 1815. In 1860 Monaco, which then included the municipalities of Menton and Roquebrune on its territory, became independent. In 1861, Menton and Roquebrune voted to join France, the principality remained independent but lost 90% of its territory. In 1911, following a revolution, the country became a constitutional monarchy. In 1918, a treaty made France the protector and guarantee of the sovereignty of the city-state.
Monaco therefore did not experience independence until late. Forgotten by the Risorgimento, relatively quickly by France which is not really interested in what is then a simple rock on the Mediterranean, it is a little by chance that Monaco sees its autonomy transform into independence. This autonomy, gained from the Kingdom of Genoa in 1294, has always been accompanied by a protectorate, whether Germanic, Spanish, French or Sardinian. This explains the weak national assertion of Monaco. In fact, Monegasque identity is expressed almost exclusively through its colors, which are therefore found on its flag and coat of arms. Even the sharing of a common language is not an element of unity and national affirmation. Monegasque, a dialect of Ligurian, is spoken only by a tiny part of the population. The same is true of Occitan, another “native” language of the principality. The only official language of the principality is French.
Where do Monegasque colors come from?
Adopted in 1881, the flag of Monaco is made up of two bands of equivalent size: the upper band is red, the lower band is white. The flag uses the colors of the Monaco coat of arms. These colors are a tribute both to the arms of the Grimaldi family, the reigning family of the principality for 800 years, and to the colors of the Republic of Genoa. In addition, it is from this Republic that Monaco acquired its “independence” in 1294 and that the Grimaldi family came. The flag is therefore both a tribute to the princely family and to the Genoese origins of the city-state.
Another explanation, more legendary, consists in seeing in the red of the flag, the blood of Sainte-Dévote, patron saint of the Principality and Corsica. Martyred and executed in Aléria, in Corsica, her body, put in a boat, would have drifted to the Roman port of La Turbie (French town next to Monaco) guided by a dove. This legend gave birth to a Monegasque tradition, still active today, which wants that every January 26, a boat is burnt in the port near the church dedicated to the Saint in the Condamine district. The Catholic religion being the state religion in the principality, January 27, the day of Sainte-Dévote is a public holiday. According to this legend, the white color of the flag would be an evocation of the dove which guided the boat of Sainte-Dévote.
The coat of arms of Monaco represents in their center the same red and white colors of the flag, it is said to be “tapered in silver and gules”. Overlooked by the main crown and surrounded by two armed monks, they stand on the principality’s motto “Deo Juvante” (with the help of God) as to signify the quasi-miraculous existence of a tiny principality untouched by its powerful neighbors.
Small in size, the Principality of Monaco is large in terms of its international influence. Far from the glitter of the “Carré d’Or”, Monegasque history is rich because of the multiple domination it has suffered. Its flag embodies more than eight centuries of the principality’s history: from the independence obtained from the Genoese Republic, another city-state, in 1294, to the opulent wealth and success of 21st century Monaco. This historical continuity of a principality, always faithful to itself, Monaco testifies to it even in its hymn which opens with the following stanza: red and white colors / Constituting the symbol of our freedom / Young and old have always respected it! [1]