| Vexillology of Poland |
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| Poland |
| Polish Coat-of-Arms |
| Long Form of Country Name: Republic of Poland (Rzeczpospolita Polska) Short Form of Country Name: Poland (Polska) Form of State: Republic consisting of 16 administrative provinces known plurally as wojewodztwa. The Head of State is a president popularly elected to a 5-year term with one succession if re-elected. Form of Government: Emerging parliamentary democracy with legislative authority vested in a bicameral National Assembly (Zgromadzenie Narodowe) composed of the Senat (upper house) and the Sejm (lower house). Executive authority is vested in the Council of Ministers presided over by a prime minister and consisting of ministers appointed by the President and responsible to the Sejm. Independence: 11 November 1918 with the proclamation of the Republic Capital: Warsaw Major National Groups: Overwhelmingly Polish with small communities of Germans, Belurussians, and Ukrainians. |
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| Proportion: 8:3 Adopted: 1 August 1919 First Flown: 1831 Use: |
| Polish Provincial Flags |
| The flags of Poland's modern flags are based on the flags of the historical provinces from which they were created. The names of some of the proviinces have been labeled in English. |
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| State Flag of Poland with National Crest |
| The crested state flag is used officially only by the national government. Taking the law literally, even then use is restricted under certain circumstances and uses. However, because of the ambiguity of the laws' wording, these retrictions are often ignored and the flags with and without the coat-of-arms is used interchangeably. However, private citizens still largely used only the plain flag. |
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| The national colors of Poland - white and red - originated in the heraldric traditions of the kings of Poland. The earliest known Polish flags were royal standards consisting of various designs surrounding a rampant, crowned white eagle. The legend of the white eagle itself is fascinating. The story relates that there were three brothers who went out to found the Slavic race. One founded the Russian nation, the other the Czech nation, and the last founded the Polish nation. The progenitor of the Polish people made camp one evening and as he rested to watch the sun go down, he noticed a white eagle nested high above the descending sun in the uppermost branches of a tall tree. So moved by the scene was this first Pole that he decided that the place he camped would become the center of his new kingdom and the homeland of his descendents. Taking the symbolism of this legend, the kings of Poland from the 14th century adopted the white eagle as their heraldric emblem. And because the eagle in the story was notably above the descending sun, the white of the national flag is always above the red. The flag and its proper use played an interesting part in the modern history of Poland, too. During the communist regime, it was illegal for private citizens to fly or display the national flag except on legal holidays, punishable by up to one year in prison. As the trade unions began to rise up against the communists during the 1980s in the shipyards of Gdansk, they used this prohibition as a sign of protest and defiance. When a Solidarity strike began, the Polish workers hoisted the national flag above the factories that they were striking. This act was represented on the logo of their union, Solidarity. The national emblem of the flag, flying illegally over factories and shipyards, became a symbol of the nation's demand for change. Today, Poles are allowed to legally fly the national flag "with due respect." |
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| Logo of Solidarity Defiantly displaying the National Colors |
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| Royal Standard of the Polish Kings ca. the 14th Century |
| Uncrowned White Eagle Used during the Communist Regime |
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| Return to the European Vexillogram Directory © 2007 SouthBear This page was created on 4 July 2007 Date of Last Revision: 4 July 2007 Animated flagpole: www.fg-a.com |
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