Last modified: 2013-01-20 by rob raeside
Keywords: italy | palermo | sicily |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors
image by Roberto Breschi from CISV
THE FLAG OF THE PALERMO PROVINCE:
Exactly 137 years after its first president had come into office, Province of Palermo - the biggest of the provinces of Sicily- has raised on 2 September 1998 official flag of its own: a dark red field with the provincial coat of arms, granted on 9 August 1910, in the center. It comprises a black eagle in the breast of which is a shield combining the arms of the capital cities of the four departments forming the Province at that time. In the first quarter is an eagle in gold over a red background for Palermo; the second quarter, portraying Saint Calogero over a silver field, recalls Tčrmini Imerese; three mullets forming a pall and swimming towards a piece of bread in an azure and silver sea in the third quarter represent Cefalů; the golden lion holding a red heart on an azure background evokes Corleone. The Italian provincial crown completes this design. Despite the suppression of these four subdivisions in 1927, their symbols continue legally to be part of the coat of arms of the Province and now of its flag. The great black eagle was the symbol of Sicily during the Middle Ages, led by the Swabian Emperors ruling over this Island too, the major city of which was (and is) Palermo. The first official hoisting of new flag occurred on that morning in the presence of some forty gonfalons of local town while a band was performing the provincial anthem. That very day each town council was provided with that flag. To tell the truth the ancient "Province of Palermo" was suppressed in 1946 by the new Statute of the Autonomous Region of Sicily assuming responsibility over local government system. In 1989 it was officially replaced by the "Regional Province of Palermo", over the same boundaries. Nevertheless 1861 is usually considered to be the year when this community was created.
Rosario Francesco Raunisi, 17 September 2002
image from <www.araldicacivica.it>