This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website

Belgium

België, Belgique, Belgien

Last modified: 2005-07-23 by ivan sache
Keywords: belgium | belgique | belgie | belgien | europe | brabant | anthem | brabanconne (la) | proportions |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors


[Flag of Belgium]by António Martins

Flag adopted 23 January 1831, coat of arms adopted 17 May 1837
Proportions: 13:15
Description: Vertically divided black-yellow-red.
Use: on land, civil and state flag.

Colour approximate specifications (as given in Album des Pavillons [pay00]):

  • Red: Pantone 186 c / CMYK (%) C 0 - M90 - Y 80 - K 5
  • Yellow: Pantone 116 c / CMYK (%) C 0 - M 15 - Y 95 - K 0

See also:

Origin of the Belgian flag

Colours of the flag

The colours of the Belgian flag were taken from the arms of Brabant, a province in the Low Countries (the Netherlands + Belgium), which extended from the Walloon province of Walloon Brabant, over Flemish Brabant (and Brussels) and Antwerpen in Flanders, and in the Netherlands the province of North-Brabant. The arms of Brabant show on a black field a yellow lion facing the viewer's left, with a red tongue and nails. The heraldic description (blazon) of these arms is:

Sable a lion rampant or armed and langued gules.

The lion of Brabant features on the arms of the Kingdom of Belgium and the provincial arms of Walloon Brabant and Flemish Brabant, as well as on the arms of the Dutch province of North-Brabant.

Filip Van Laenen, 29 October 1997

Proportions of the flag

The Belgian flag has odd proportions of 13:15, whose origin remains unknown, as stated by Léon Nyssen (Les drapeaux nouveaux de la Belgique fédérale, pp. 142-145 in Fahnen, Flags, Drapeaux [icv93]):

Concerning the odd 13:15 proportions, nobody is able to explain its origin.

Ivan Sache, 29 December 1999

According to information kindly forwarded by Michel Lupant no exact date of issue can be found, but the proportions of 13:15 stem from a XIXth Century directive o