Flag of Albania
Albania’s flag is red with a black two-headed eagle in the centre, as Article 14 of the constitution says. Neither the constitution nor the flag law gives the colours a meaning; Store norske leksikon says the eagle is an old Byzantine symbol that the national hero Skanderbeg used in the 15th century, and it went on the flag when Albania became independent in 1912.
Easily confused with
How to read it
Article 14 of Albania’s constitution says the national flag is red with a two-headed black eagle in the centre, and makes Flag Day, 28 November, the national holiday. The details are fixed by Law 8926 of 22 July 2002. Its Article 3, as the newspaper Shqiptarja.com quotes it, describes a field of blood red with the two-headed eagle in the middle, its wings spread, with nine feathers on each wing and seven in the tail, and sets the flag’s proportions at 1 to 1.4 (5 by 7). Store norske leksikon dates the present version to 22 July 2002; the eagle was drawn by the artist Sadik Kaceli.
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Telling it from Montenegro’s flag
Montenegro’s flag is red with a double-headed eagle too. Its eagle is gold and crowned, holds a sceptre and an orb, and has a shield on its breast with a gold lion; the flag has a gold border on every side and is twice as long as it is high, Store norske leksikon says. Albania’s is a black eagle on plain red, with no border. The double-headed eagle is also in the arms of Serbia, and was in those of Yugoslavia, a legacy of the Byzantine Empire, the encyclopedia notes.
The star removed in 1992
Under the People’s Republic from 1946, a red five-pointed star edged in gold sat above the eagle, Store norske leksikon says. The constitution of 28 December 1976 fixed that form, and the star was removed on 7 July 1992.
Earlier eagle flags
The Principality of Albania took a square red flag with the black eagle in 1914, with a gold crown above it and a shield bearing a peacock on its breast. The republic kept the square red flag with the plain eagle from 1925 to 1928, and the kingdom of 1928 to 1939 used a wider one, with Skanderbeg’s gold helmet over the eagle’s heads from 1934, Store norske leksikon says.
The coat of arms
The constitution describes the state arms as a red shield with the black two-headed eagle in the centre and the gold helmet of Skanderbeg at the top. The present version dates from 1998.
Where this symbol came from
oldsymbols.comDouble-headed eagleThe black two-headed eagle on the flag is the Byzantine double-headed eagle that Skanderbeg used in the 15th century.Read next
- Next in European flagsFlag of AndorraAndorra’s flag has three vertical bands, blue by the pole, yellow and red, with the coat of arms on the yellow. The flag law describes the colours without giving them a meaning; the arms join those of the principality’s two co-princes, the Bishop of Urgell and the Counts of Foix, with those of Catalonia and Béarn, under the motto “Virtus unita fortior” (“united virtue is stronger”), Store norske leksikon says.
- The same shape in African flagsFlag of Burkina FasoBurkina Faso’s flag is two equal horizontal stripes, red above green, with a yellow five-pointed star in the centre. A guide published by the embassy of Burkina Faso in Paris explains the red as the blood shed by the martyrs of the revolution, the green as the country’s farm wealth, and the star as the ideological guide of the Democratic and Popular Revolution.
More european flags
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with squares and rectangles.
Sources
- Albania 1998 (rev. 2016) Constitution, Constitution of Albania of 1998 (rev. 2016), Article 14 (English translation), Constitute Project, Article 14
- Festa, flamujt me shqiponjë të deformuar (Shqiptarja.com), Shqiptarja.com, on the flag law (Law 8926 of 22 July 2002) before the centenary of independence, 2012, Shqiptarja.com, Article text
- Albanias flagg og våpen (Store norske leksikon), Lars Roede, “Albanias flagg og våpen”, Store norske leksikon, Store norske leksikon, Flagget; Våpenet
- Montenegros flagg og våpen (Store norske leksikon), Jon Gunnar Arntzen and Lars Roede, “Montenegros flagg og våpen”, Store norske leksikon, Store norske leksikon, Flagget; Våpenet
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 13, 2026. How we research
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