The flag of the City of Rio de Janeiro or flag of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro ( en, flag of Saint Sebastian of Rio de Janeiro) consists of a white rectangle with a blue saltire behind the coat of arms of the city of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, which is displayed red in the center. Its basic design has changed little since it was adopted on July 8, 1908, except during period from 1960 to 1975 when the municipality of Rio de Janeiro was known as Guanabara State. It resembles the flags of Galicia (before it changed) and the Russian Navy (with some changes).

Composition

The flag of the City of Rio de Janeiro is a white field with two blue stripes, placed diagonally, forming a band and a bar (that is, in the shape of a saltire, or a St. Andrew's cross). On the crossing of the band and the bar, the city's coat of arms—a sixth in proportion to the total field—appears in red. The city's coat of arms has the following heraldic composition: on a red field, there are three silver arrows surmounted by a silver

armillary sphere An armillary sphere (variations are known as spherical astrolabe, armilla, or armil) is a model of objects in the sky (on the celestial sphere), consisting of a spherical framework of rings, centered on Earth or the Sun, that represent lines of ...

, and over all a silver Phrygian cap. Supporting the shield are two red dolphins, holding at their right a laurel branch and at their left an oak branch. The crest of the shield is a mural crown of five towers, also red. The

tinctures A tincture is typically an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Solvent concentrations of 25–60% are common, but may run as high as 90%.Groot Handboek Geneeskrachtige Planten by Geert Verhelst In chemistr ...

, or heraldic colors, of the coat of arms on this shield are altered from the traditional coat of arms, which has a blue field, golden arrows and sphere, and a red Phrygian cap. The dolphins are normally silver, the leaves they hold green, and the mural crown gold. The blue and white of the flag symbolize the Portuguese origin of the city, as they are the traditional colors of the Portuguese monarchy, adopted since the creation of the County of Portugal in 1097 (it was only after the proclamation of the Portuguese Republic on October 5, 1910 that Portugal began to use the colors dark green and red on their flag). The color red on the flag of Rio de Janeiro symbolizes the blood shed by Saint Sebastian, the saintly patron of the city, as well as the blood shed by the city's founder,

Estácio de Sá Estácio de Sá (1520 – February 20, 1567) was a Portuguese soldier and officer. Sá travelled to the colony of Brazil on the orders of the Portuguese crown to wage war on the French colonists commanded by Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon. These F ...

, and the early settlers of Rio de Janeiro.

References

{{reflist Flags of saints

Rio de Janeiro (city)