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

Brazil

República Federativa do Brasil, Federative Republic of Brazil

7:10 by Joseph McMillan
Flag adopted by Law No 8421 of 11 May 1992; basic design by Decree No 4 of 19 November 1889

Legal Description
Designer
Ratio
Symbolism

Colors
Celestial Sphere
White Band
Stars

Coat-of-Arms

See also:

Legal Description of the Brazilian Flag

From Law No 5700 of 1 September 1971:

Section II. About the national flag

Art. 3 - According to the constitutional dispositions, the national flag was adopted by Decree No 4, of 19 November 1889, later modified by Law No 5443 (Annex No 1) of 28 May 1968.

Sole paragraph. On the National flag is represented, rendered artistically, a view of the sky over Rio de Janeiro, with the constellation "Cruzeiro do Sul" [Southern Cross] at the meridian, imagined as seen by an observer placed on the vertical line including the zenith of that city, from outside the sphere seen on the flag. (From the booklet "Os Símbolos Nacionais", published by the Presidência da República, Brasília, 1986, on the 165th year since independence and 98th since establishment of the republic)

Pier Paolo Lugli, 19 January 1998

In the Brazilian Government's website is the full text of the law on the Brazilian flag and other symbols.
Guilherme Simões Reis, 6 October 1999

In Album des Pavillons, 2000 the construction details are given as (51+54+210+54+51):(51+144+210+144+51) which looks correct.
Zeljko Heimer, 21 March 2001

Designers of the Flag

Benjamin Constant, a member of the Provisional Government who prepared the decree, credited Professor Raimundo Teixeira Mendes, president of the Positivist Apostolate of Brazil, with the idea of the new flag. Texeira Mendes collaborated with Dr. Miguel Lemos and Professor Manuel Pereira Reis, chairman of astronomy at the Polytechnic School, and the design was executed by the painter Décio Vilares.
Joseph McMillan, 12 Apri