Flag of Georgia
Georgia’s flag is white with a large red cross reaching all four edges and a smaller red cross in each of the four white squares: the “five-cross flag”. Georgia’s law on state symbols calls the small crosses bolnur-katskhuri crosses; Store norske leksikon traces the design to the banner of Georgia’s kings in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Easily confused with
How to read it
The Organic Law on State Symbols of Georgia (No. 3724, 14 November 2018), in force since the President elected that year took the oath, describes the national flag as a rectangular white fabric with a large red right-angled cross in the centre touching all four sides, and in the squares between its arms four bolnur-katskhuri crosses of the same colour. Two annexes to the law fix the flag’s image and standard dimensions. The flag was restored on 14 January 2004 and is both the national flag and the state flag, in the proportions 2:3, Store norske leksikon records. 14 January is National Flag Day, marked publicly since 2012.
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Telling it from England’s flag
Georgia’s flag has the same red St George’s cross on white as England’s flag, Store norske leksikon notes, with a red cross added in the middle of each of the four white fields. The encyclopedia describes those as Maltese crosses, one of the heraldic crosses. England’s flag is also longer: the Flag Institute gives it as 3:5, where Georgia’s is 2:3.
The banner of the medieval kings
Georgia’s kings used the flag in the 14th and 15th centuries, probably first in the reign of George V (1314–1346), according to Store norske leksikon. The opposition took it up again before the change of government in the autumn of 2003, and it became the national flag in 2004. From 1990 to 2004 Georgia flew a dark red flag with a rectangle in the top corner divided into black and white, the flag of the short-lived independent republic of 1918 to 1921.
Where this symbol came from
oldsymbols.comCrosses in heraldryThe four small crosses, which Store norske leksikon calls Maltese crosses and Georgia’s law bolnur-katskhuri crosses.Read next
- Next in Asian flagsFlag of KazakhstanKazakhstan’s flag is sky blue with a golden sun and its rays in the centre, a soaring golden steppe eagle beneath it, and a vertical band of golden national ornament along the pole. The President’s website says the blue stands for a pure sky, peace and prosperity, and its single colour for the country’s unity; the sun for wealth, abundance and life; and the eagle for the state’s power, sovereignty and independence.
- The same shape in African flagsFlag of BurundiA white diagonal cross divides the flag into red triangles at top and bottom and green ones at the sides, with a white disc in the centre holding three red six-pointed stars. The Presidency of Burundi says the red recalls the sacrifices made to defend the nation and win independence, the green hope and prosperity, the white peace and unity, and that the three stars traditionally stand for the national motto, “Unity, Work, Progress”.
More asian flags
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with crosses or squares and rectangles.
Sources
- Organic Law of Georgia on State Symbols of Georgia (2018), Organic Law of Georgia No. 3724-IIs of 14 November 2018 “On State Symbols of Georgia”, English translation, Legislative Herald of Georgia, Legislative Herald of Georgia (Matsne), Articles 1, 2 and 5; list of annexes
- Georgias flagg og våpen (Store norske leksikon), Lars Roede, “Georgias flagg og våpen”, Store norske leksikon, Store norske leksikon, Article text
- National Flag Day Marked in Georgia on January 14 (CBW), Caucasus Business Week, “National Flag Day Marked in Georgia on January 14”, Caucasus Business Week (CBW), Article
- England Flag, Flag Institute, UK flags: England (St George’s Cross), The Flag Institute, Flag details and notes
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 13, 2026. How we research
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