The Veneto is the hinterland of the city of Venice and belonged to the Republic of Venice for many years, until 1797. No wonder that the flag of the region is very similar to the one that waved over the Republic of Venice for several centuries. The flag of the city of Venice is very old. It shows from the ancient times a lion, the symbol of Saint Marcus, whose bones rest in the city since the year 828. The lion holds an open book in his paw, the Gospel of Saint Marcus. The flag was actually a gonfanon, a hanging flag with a horizontal crossbar, which originally showed the picture above and had down hanging strips of cloth at the lower edge. This practice was also maintained in the horizontal form. Because of this – and also because of its lavish design – the flag was very difficult to reproduce. Not least because of this, there were simplified versions, that only showed the image of the flag, the lion with its pedestal, extended to a wide blue stripe, which was originally intended to symbolize the water of the lagoon in which the city of Venice is located. Even today, the cloth strips are still very often left out in practice, in that they are only printed on, but not seperated to each other with seams. After the conquest by the troops of Napoleon in the year 1797, the Republic had to exist just for only a short time, and used a blue and yellow striped flag. In 1798 the state was then definitively resolved. After the era of Napoléon, the city and its surroundings (the Veneto) came to the Empire of Austria and was connected the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia. The flag of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia is not handed down safely. Probably a black-golden flag was used, as it was used by the Empire of Austria as the national flag. From 1848 to 1849 raged in almost all of Italy the uprising of the people's movement "Giòvane Itàlia" under Mazzini and Garibaldi, the monarchies were often shortly disempowered, and in this rebellion-phase in the Italian States were often used national-italian flags in green, white and red. In 1922, the flag of Venice was revived and showed its lavish appearance as a two-coloured version in gold on red. Here the lion wore a sword, a practice that was actually intended for the ships of the war fleet, which has been preserved in the coat of arms on the naval flag of Italy up to the present days. In 1997, two hundred years after the end of the republic, a new flag was introduced which is very reminiscent of the city's flag from the 17th and 18th centuries. The small colored images of saints, which were common for a long time, were added again.
antiquity · settlement by the Veneti tribe, later to the Roman Empire
ca. 400 · conquest by the Western Goth
452 · Hun's invasions, several Veneti tribe members escape before Attila's Huns to the lagoon and build their town Venice
476 · dismissal of the last Roman emperor Romulus Augustulus, end of the (West)Roman Empire, Venice belongs until 493 to the Empire of the Odoaker
535 · conquest by Byzanz (East Rome)
7th-8th cent. · Venice becomes a naval might
806–812 · Venice is under Frankish supremacy
ca. 1000 · Venice submits the coasts of Istria
and Dalmatia
11th cent. · Venice becomes a republic
1100–1250 · Venice enlarges it's territory in the hinterland and captures it's colonial empire on the Balkan and in Anatolia (1206 Korfu, 1207 Naxos, 1209 Cefallonia, 1211 Euboea, 1212 Crete)
1256–1381 · (in the end) victorious wars against Genua
1848–1849 · in almost all of Italy uprising of the people's movement "Giovine Italia" under Mazzini and Garibaldi, Charles Albert of Sardinia-Piedmont sets himself at the top of the uprising and introduces in his country and a liberal constitution, the uprising ends in disagreement, Charles Albert resigns in favor of his son Victor Emmanuel II.
