Flag of Sardinia

=History of the Flag of the Kingdom of Sardinia=

The first flag of Kindom of Sardinia, since its creation in 1720, was the ancient flag of the House of Savoy, a red flag with a white cross.From 1816 to 1848, as a result of the Congress of Vienna, was readopted the blue flag with red canton, layered white and red crosses.Between the 1848 and 1861, a sequence of events led to the independence and unification of Italy (apart Venetian region, Rome, and Trento and Trieste, which were united to Italy in 1866, 1870 and 1918 respectively); this period is known as "Risorgimento". Throughout this period, the "tricolore" was the symbol which united all the efforts of the Italian people towards freedom and independence.In 1848, many states in Italy changed their flags to reflect the commitment of all Italians to the independence of their motherland.The Italian tricolour was adopted as war flag of Kingdom of Sardinia army: it contained Savoy royal house's coat of arms in the white stripe. In his "Proclamation to Lombard-Venetian people", Charles Albert of Savoy said that "… in order to show more clearly with exterior signs the commitment to Italian unification, We" [Charles Albert] "want that our troops … have the Savoy shield superimposed on the Italian tricolour flag". Since the Savoy coat of arms had a white cross that mixed with the white stripe of the Italian tricolour, a border was added to the shield, blue as the colour of the dynasty.In the same year, the "Granducato di Toscana" (Grand Duchy of Tuscany) became constitutional, and dropped the Austrian flag with Austria-Lorraine great coat of arms, in favour of the Italian tricolour with a simplified coat of arms.The flag of the "Regno delle Due Sicilie" (Kingdom of the Two Sicilies), which was white with the Borbonic seal in the middle, was modified through the addition of a red and green border. This flag lasted from April 3 1848 to May 19 1849.In the same year, Venetian people revolted against Austrian government, declaring the birth of the "Venice Republic". The flag adopted marked the link to Italian independence and unification efforts; it was the Italian tricolour with, in the upper green canton, a white rectangle bordered with green/white/red colours and charged with the golden St. Mark's lion.In 1860, a new version of the flag of the "Regno delle Due Sicilie" was adopted: the Italian tricolour with Borbonic seal on the white stripe. Adopted on June 21 1860, dismissed in March 1861, with the kingdom being incorporated into "Regno d'Italia" (Kingdom of Italy).On 15 April 1861, "Kingdom of Sardinia/Piedmont" flag (the Italian tricolour with Savoy's coat of arms) is declared national flag of the newly-formed "Regno d'Italia" (Kingdom of Italy).The Italian tricolour bearing the armorial bearings of the former Royal House of Savoy was the national flag for 85 years until the birth of the Italian Republic.

Flag of the Italian Autonomous Region of Sardinia

The flag of the Italian Region of Sardinia, popularly known also as the "Four Moors flag", consists of a red cross on a white background, with a "maure" (moor's head) in each quarter.

According to the Spaniard tradition, the four moors' symbol appeared first in the celebrations following the conquer of Alcoraz by King Peter I of Aragon and Navarre in 1096, where the four moors refer to the Arab defeat by his hand. The Sardinian tradition instead dates the origin of the symbol in 1017, as a banner given by Pope Benedict II to the Pisans in order to help the Sardinians by the attacks from the Saracens led by Mujahid al-Amiri.However, the first historically documented appearance of the emblem is dated 1281, as a seal used by the royal chancellorship of Peter III of Aragon, and its first association with Sardinia came in the second half of the 14th century, as official symbol of the Kingdom inside the Confederation of the Aragon Crown. Since the 1700s, the flag was represented with the heads turned to the left and the bandages to hide the moors' eyes.The official recognition of the flag of Sardinia inside the Italian Republic came in 1952, thanks to a Presidential decree. A regional law approved in 1999 changed the flag, with the heads now turned to the right and the bandages again encircling the forehead.

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[http://images.google.it/imgres?imgurl=http://www.worldstatesmen.org/it_cer-e.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Italy_states2.htm&h=216&w=324&sz=2&hl=it&start=10&tbnid=CmjS3gybKe78wM:&tbnh=79&tbnw=118&prev=/images%3Fq%3DFlag%2Bof%2BKingdom%2Bof%2BSardinia%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Dit%26sa%3DG] History of the flag
*it icon [http://www.sitos.regione.sardegna.it/4mori/4mori.htm History of the four moors flag]