Vatican City’s flag is a square vertical bicolour: gold (hoist) and white, with the crossed keys of Saint Peter and the papal tiara in the white panel. Codified with the Lateran Treaty in 1929, it inherits colours from earlier Papal States standards (gold and silver rendered as yellow and white). Protocol strictly limits use to Vatican institutions and nunciatures; the papal standard and other variants are reserved. The design asserts spiritual sovereignty distinct from Italy.
Vatican City’s flag, adopted in 1929, condenses centuries of papal heraldry into a concise legal emblem for the world’s smallest sovereign state.
Papal colours and early standards. The Papal States long experimented with flags, but by the early nineteenth century guards and institutions had settled on gold and silver as emblematic colours—translated in textiles as yellow and white. These colours, together with the crossed keys of Saint Peter and the papal tiara, marked ecclesiastical authority distinct from neighbouring temporal powers.
Lateran Treaty and codification. The 1929 accords between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy created Vatican City State and, with it, an official flag: a square vertical bicolour of gold (hoist) and white bearing the keys and tiara in the white panel. Regulations positioned the gold key dexter (nearest the hoist) and the silver sinister, bound by a red cord; they fixed proportions, drawing, and usage.
Symbolism
The gold and silver keys signify the power of binding and loosing granted to Saint Peter; the tiara represents the papacy’s spiritual jurisdiction. The square shape, rare among national flags, further distinguishes Vatican City in international display. The flag asserts that the city‑state is the temporal instrument of a spiritual authority—the Holy See—whose international personality predates and outlives any particular regime.
Protocol
and variants. Use is tightly circumscribed: Vatican departments, papal residences, St Peter’s Basilica and Square, and nunciatures abroad display the flag; private or commercial uses require permission. The papal standard—distinct from the state flag—adds the reigning pontiff’s arms and flies only in the pope’s presence. Nunciatures observe diplomatic precedence rules; flags are kept immaculate, never touching the ground, and replaced at the first sign of wear.
Continuity
and instruction. Because the design is heraldic rather than ideological, it has remained stable. Training for Swiss Guards, gendarmes, and ceremonial staff includes flag etiquette. During papal transitions (sede vacante) the state flag does not change, underscoring institutional continuity even when the personal standard lapses.
Thus the Vatican flag, in yellow and white with keys and tiara, is at once ancient and modern: an heir to Papal States colours made precise by twentieth‑century law, and a compact assertion of spiritual sovereignty in the language of flags.