Who's up for a thread about the flags of the regions of Slovakia?

Slovakia is divided since 1996 into 9 regions called kraje (singular kraj) each with their own government. Each modern kraj is named after its capital city.

: Me

The Slovak Republic (as it is officially known) was created in 1969 whilst under communist rule, granting a degree of autonomy to those parts of Czechoslovakia with a majority Slovak population. It only became a fully independent country in 1993 after the fall of communism.

It was governed centrally until 1996 when the current kraje were created. There have been kraje in the past, but these ones are completely new regions so needed new arms & new flags.

You may love these flags or you may hate them for being too abstract. I'm in the "love" camp.

Banská Bystrica (pop. 650 k)

This flag is a heavily simplified version of the arms, which are the quartered arms of 4 former counties, when this area was part of the Hungarian empire. One of them (Nógrád; top right) still exists on the Hungarian side of the border.

Bratislava (pop. 660 k)

This region is home to the nation's capital and largest city (and one of my favourite places I've visited in Europe).

The flag takes its colours from the arms, but not much else.

The arms "a deer rising from a wheel" are those of the Pálffy family.

The Pálffy family were a powerful family of soldiers who led famous victories against Turkish armies in the 18th century (which this land was all part of Hungary).

Many places in Bratislava are named after them, including a palace where Mozart played a concert at the age of six!

Because the kraje each have the same name as their capital city, it would be easy to confuse them, but they are different entities with different flags.

In Slovakia, kraj flags are rectangular, and city flags are swallowtails.

For example, the flag and arms of Bratislava city.

Košice (pop. 800 k)

I love this flag - it's so rare to see bright yellow taking such a prominent place on a flag.

The flag is only partially inspired by the arms, as you can see. The quartered arms represent 4 historical counties.

Nitra (pop. 680 k)

You might be spotting a pattern with these flags now - in fact 5 out of 9 use this coloured-in-quarters design.

The colours are interesting here - I don't think there's a strict definition of the blue here but I like this rendering.

The arms were the arms of Nitra county during the Hungarian era. They show St Ladislaus I, who according to tradition died in Nitra.

He carries a double-cross shield (also seen on Slovakia's national arms and flag), a Byzantine symbol associated with Slovakian Christianity.

Prešov (pop. 825 k)

The first flag of a different design! I believe this flag was the winner of a 2002 competition that required the flag to be based on the colours of the arms.

It's slightly hard on the eyes because it (intentionally?) breaks the "rule of tincture".

Trenčín (pop. 585 k)

This flag is the most distinctive of all the kraj flags and I can't think of any other in the world like it. Quite impressive for such a simple flag!

Also check out that deer side-eye on the arms!

Trnava (pop. 565 k)

The flag is very obviously derived from the arms, which are also excellent.

The arms include the Trnava city arms in the upper left but I'm not sure about the origins of the rest... good to see our old friend rising-wheel-goat again!

Žilina (pop. 690 k)

How rare it is to see geometric flags like this with 4 fields all in different colours! It almost makes me feel like it should be a supermarket logo or something. But I do like it!

The arms are awesome too, although I don't know anything of their origins.

Well those are the flags of the kraje of Slovakia. What did you think?

I admire the consistency and from an aesthetic perspective they're really beautiful. But perhaps they're *too* simple. In my research for this thread I've yet to find one photo of a kraj flag flying.

The kraj governments themselves each have a website. All but one (Košice) show the arms prominently on their website design but none of them feature the flag.

Goes to show that chasing aesthetics isn't enough - you perhaps also need to give people a symbol to rally around.