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St George Cross
In heraldry, Saint George's Cross, the Cross of Saint George, is a red cross on a white background, which from the Late Middle Ages became associated with Saint George, the military saint, often depicted as a crusader. Associated with the crusades, the red-on-white cross has its origins in the 10th century. It has been used as the ensign of the Republic of Genoa from perhaps as early as the 10th century. The symbol was adopted by the Swabian League in the pre-Reformation Holy Roman Empire. George became associated as patron saint of England after the English reformation. Since then this flag is commonly identified as the national flag of England. Saint George is the patron saint of the Spanish semi-autonomous region of Catalonia and of the country of Georgia. It figures in the emblem (crest) of FC Barcelona, in Ecuadoran premier side Barcelona S.C. and as two quarters of the Flag of Barcelona. The national flag of Georgia (since 2004) supplements this cross with Jerusalem ...
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Cross Of St
A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a saltire in heraldic terminology. The cross has been widely recognized as a symbol of Christianity from an early period.''Christianity: an introduction''
by Alister E. McGrath 2006 pages 321-323
However, the use of the cross as a religious symbol predates Christianity; in the ancient times it was a pagan religious symbol throughout Europe and western Asia. The effigy of a man hanging on a cross was set up in the fields to protect the crops. It often appeared in conjunction with the female-genital circle or oval, to signify the sacred marriage, as in Egyptian amulet ...
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Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, to the south of the Pyrenees mountain range. Catalonia is administratively divided into four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. The capital and largest city, Barcelona is the second-most populated municipality in Spain and the fifth-most populous urban area in the European Union.Demographia: World Urban Areas
– Demographia, April 2018
Current day Catalonia comprises most of the medieval and early modern Principality o ...
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Alessandria
Alessandria (; pms, Lissandria ) is a city and ''comune'' in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. The city is sited on the alluvial plain between the Tanaro and the Bormida rivers, about east of Turin. Alessandria is also a major railway hub. History Alessandria was founded in 1168 with a charter as a free comune; it was sited upon a preexisting urban nucleus, to serve as a stronghold for the Lombard League, defending the traditional liberties of the communes of northern Italy against the Imperial forces of Frederick Barbarossa. Alessandria stood in the territories of the marchese of Montferrat, a staunch ally of the Emperor, with a name assumed in 1168 to honour the Emperor's opponent, Pope Alexander III. In 1174–1175 the fortress was sorely tested by the Imperial siege and stood fast. A legend (related in Umberto Eco's book ''Baudolino'', and which recalls one concerning Bishop Herculanus’ successful defence of Perugia several centuries ear ...
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Vercelli
Vercelli (; pms, Vërsèj ), is a city and ''comune'' of 46,552 inhabitants (January 1, 2017) in the Province of Vercelli, Piedmont, northern Italy. One of the oldest urban sites in northern Italy, it was founded, according to most historians, around 600 BC. The city is situated on the Sesia River in the plain of the Po River between Milan and Turin. It is an important centre for the cultivation of rice and is surrounded by rice paddies, which are flooded in the summer. The climate is typical of the Po Valley with cold, foggy winters ( in January) and oppressive heat during the summer months ( in July). Rainfall is most prevalent during the spring and autumn; thunderstorms are common in the summer. The languages spoken in Vercelli are Italian and Piedmontese; the variety of Piedmontese native to the city is called ''Varsleis''. The world's first university funded by public money was established in Vercelli in 1228 (the seventh university founded in Italy), but was closed in 1 ...
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Mantua
Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture. In 2017, it was named as the European Capital of Gastronomy, included in the Eastern Lombardy District (together with the cities of Bergamo, Brescia, and Cremona). In 2008, Mantua's ''centro storico'' (old town) and Sabbioneta were declared by UNESCO to be a World Heritage Site. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family has made it one of the main artistic, culture, cultural, and especially musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole. Having one of the most splendid courts of Europe of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and early seventeenth centuries. Mantua is noted for its significant role in the history of opera; the city is also known for its architectural treasures and artifacts, elegant palaces, and the m ...
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Reggio Emilia
Reggio nell'Emilia ( egl, Rèz; la, Regium Lepidi), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 171,944 inhabitants and is the main ''comune'' (municipality) of the Province of Reggio Emilia. The inhabitants of Reggio nell'Emilia are called ''Reggiani'', while the inhabitants of Reggio di Calabria, in the southwest of the country, are called ''Reggini''. The old town has a hexagonal form, which derives from the ancient walls, and the main buildings are from the 16th–17th centuries. The commune's territory lies entirely on a plain, crossed by the Crostolo stream. History Ancient and early Middle Ages Reggio began as a historical site with the construction by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus of the Via Aemilia, leading from Piacenza to Rimini (187 BC). Reggio became a judicial administration centre, with a forum called at first ''Regiu ...
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Padua
Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 214,000 (). The city is sometimes included, with Venice (Italian ''Venezia'') and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area (PATREVE) which has a population of around 2,600,000. Padua stands on the Bacchiglione, Bacchiglione River, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza. The Brenta River, which once ran through the city, still touches the northern districts. Its agricultural setting is the Venetian Plain (''Pianura Veneta''). To the city's south west lies the Colli Euganei, Euganaean Hills, praised by Lucan and Martial, Petrarch, Ugo Foscolo, and Percy Bysshe Shelley, Shelley. Padua appears twice in the UNESCO World Heritage List: for its Botanical Garden of Padua, Botanical Garden, the most anc ...
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Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its metropolitan area is home to more than 1,000,000 people. It is known as the Fat City for its rich cuisine, and the Red City for its Spanish-style red tiled rooftops and, more recently, its leftist politics. It is also called the Learned City because it is home to the oldest university in the world. Originally Etruscan, the city has been an important urban center for centuries, first under the Etruscans (who called it ''Felsina''), then under the Celts as ''Bona'', later under the Romans (''Bonōnia''), then again in the Middle Ages, as a free municipality and later ''signoria'', when it was among the largest European cities by population. Famous for its towers, churches and lengthy porticoes, Bologna has a well-preserved ...
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Northern Italy
Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions: Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trentino-Alto Adige. As of 2014, its population was 27,801,460. Rhaeto-Romance and Gallo-Italic languages are spoken in the region, as opposed to the Italo-Dalmatian languages spoken in the rest of Italy. The Venetian language is sometimes considered to be part of the Italo-Dalmatian languages, but some major publications such as '' Ethnologue'' (to which UNESCO refers on its page about endangered languages) and '' Glottolog'' define it as Gallo-Italic. For statistic purposes, the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT) uses the terms Northwest Italy and Northeast Italy for two of Italy's five statistical regions in its reporting. These same su ...
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Jerusalem Cross
The Jerusalem cross (also known as "five-fold Cross", or "cross-and-crosslets") is a heraldic cross and Christian cross variant consisting of a large cross potent surrounded by four smaller Greek crosses, one in each quadrant. It was used as the emblem and coat of arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from the 1280s. There are variants to the design, also known as "Jerusalem cross", with either the four crosslets also in the form of Crosses potent, or conversely with the central cross, also in the form of a plain Greek cross. It is not to be confused with the Lorraine cross, which has also been called the "Jerusalem cross". Origins While the symbol of the five-fold cross appears to originate in the 11th century, its association with the Kingdom of Jerusalem dates to the second half of the 13th century. The symbolism of the five-fold cross is variously given as the Five Wounds of Christ, Christ and the four evangelists, or Christ and the four quarters of the world. The symboli ...
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Flag Of Georgia (country)
The flag of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს სახელმწიფო დროშა, tr), also known as the five-cross flag ( ka, ხუთჯვრიანი დროშა, tr), is one of the national symbols of Georgia. Originally a banner of the medieval Kingdom of Georgia, it was repopularised in the late 20th and early 21st centuries during the Georgian national revival. History The current flag was used by the Georgian patriotic movement following the country's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. By the late 1990s, the design had become widely known as the Georgian historical national flag, as vexillologists had pointed out the red-on-white Jerusalem cross shown as the flag of Tbilisi in a 14th-century map by Domenico and Francesco Pizzigano. By late 2021, a newly-discovered coin of the King David the Builder with five-cross composition engraving now dates the Georgian flag to the 12th century. According to the State Council of Heraldry ...
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Flag Of Barcelona
The flag of Barcelona ( ca, label=Catalan language, Catalan and Spanish language, Spanish, Bandera de Barcelona) is the municipal flag of Barcelona, which combines the St George's Cross, cross of Saint George ( ca, Sant Jordi, links=no, es, San Jorge, links=no), the patron saint of Catalonia, with the traditional red and yellow bars of the Senyera, the ancient symbol of the Crown of Aragon (here, the bars are vertical, though the modern Senyera, flag of Catalonia has horizontal stripes). The flag in its current form has been official since 2004, though it (or variations on it) may have been in use since the nineteenth century. It was first officially adopted in May 1906, but its use was not permitted during the rule of Francisco Franco; a slightly different version of the flag, with brighter colours and a different configuration of red bars, was readopted in 1984. In 1996, after a number of different proposals, the City Council of Barcelona adopted a new flag, featuring the offi ...
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