Serbia’s flag comprises horizontal bands of red, blue, and white with the national coat of arms placed left of centre. Its colours derive from the Pan‑Slavic palette and banners used since the early 19th century. The current legal form was finalized in the 2000s after the state union with Montenegro ended, with the civil flag omitting the arms. Protocol governs proportions, state and military standards, and respectful use on national occasions such as Statehood Day (15 February).
Serbia’s national flag—red, blue, and white stripes bearing a historic coat of arms—draws on centuries of heraldry and on the nineteenth-century Pan-Slavic movement that popularised this palette across eastern and central Europe. The modern design aligns with the country’s constitutional path from principality to kingdom, through socialist federation, to an independent republic.
The colour sequence red–blue–white traces to uprisings against Ottoman rule and to the Principality of Serbia in the early 1800s. These hues resonated with Slavic symbolism debated at the 1848 Prague Slavic Congress and quickly became a visual shorthand for Slavic identity and solidarity. In Serbian contexts, the tricolour was used in military and civil banners throughout the nineteenth century, with varying heraldic additions indicating royal or state authority.
The coat of arms reintroduced in contemporary law is rooted in medieval Serbian heraldry: a silver (white) double-headed eagle on a red shield, bearing a smaller cross with four firesteels (ocila) in the quarters, and surmounted by a crown. This iconography references the Nemanjić dynasty and Orthodox tradition. In the Kingdom of Serbia (1882–1918) and later in the interwar Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the tricolour with arms served as a state emblem; the civil flag often omitted arms. Under socialist Yugoslavia after 1945, republican flags carried a red star without the royal arms.
Following the breakup of Yugoslavia and the subsequent state union of Serbia and Montenegro (2003–2006), Serbia adopted the current format for its national flag, with the arms slightly shifted toward the hoist. The civil flag is the plain tricolour; the state and military flags bear the arms. Laws specify the 2:3 ratio and graphic standards for the coat of arms, ensuring consistent reproduction across media and in diplomatic settings. Penalties apply for desecration or misuse, and protocols detail half-masting and display with foreign and European Union flags.
Public practice centres the flag on national and religious holidays and in international sport. The tricolour and arms symbolise continuity with medieval sovereignty, nineteenth-century emancipation, and modern statehood. While political debates sometimes touch on heraldic details or the balance between historical and civic meanings, the flag’s basic form is broadly accepted and has remained unchanged since the late 2000s refinements that followed independence.
In sum, Serbia’s flag synthesises Pan-Slavic colours and medieval heraldry to present a compact narrative of identity and sovereignty. Its legal standardisation, combined with flexible civil use of the plain tricolour, has produced a durable symbol recognisable at home and abroad.