The flag of Sicily (; ) shows a triskeles symbol (a figure of three legs arranged in rotational symmetry), and at its center a Gorgoneion (depiction of the head of Medusa) and a pair of wings and three wheat ears. In the original flag, the wheat rats did not exist and the colors were reversed. The original flag was created in 1282 during the rebellion of the Sicilian Vespers.
Description
The flag is characterized by the presence of the triskeles in its middle, the (winged) head of Medusa and three wheat ears, representing the extreme fertility of the land of Sicily. The triskelion symbol is said to represent the three capes (headlands or promontories of the island of Sicily), namely: Pelorus (Peloro, Tip of Faro, Messina: North-East); Pachynus (Passero, Syracuse: South); and Lilybæum (Lilibeo, Cape Boeo, Marsala: West), which form three points of a triangle from the historical three valli of the island.
The flag is bisected diagonally into regions colored red, the color of Palermo, and yellow, the color of Corleone. These are the two cities that started the revolution of the Sicilian Vespers. The flag was used during the medieval revolution of the Vespers.
History
The Triskeles-with-Gorgoneion symbol is found in antiquity, depicted on coins minted in Syracuse in the 4th century BC. The emblem was included in the design of the Army Gold Medal awarded to British Army majors and above who had taken a key part in the Battle of Maida (1806). It was used in combination with the Italian tricolore in the Sicilian revolution of 1848. It was at this time referred to as "the sign of the Trinacria", Sicily being referred to by its ancient name, Trinacria ("having three headlands"). The name had been revived during the Aragonese period of the Kingdom of Sicily following the Vespers (1282). Apparently from this use, Trinacria came to be re-interpreted as a name for the symbol itself.
The diagonal division in red and yellow goes back to 1943 when it was used by the separatist movement led by Andrea Finocchiaro Aprile.
The addition of a pair of wings to the head of the Gorgon is modern (1848), the three ears of corn were added in the 1940s.
A gonfalon combining the coats of arms of Norman Sicily, the Hohenstaufen emperors, and the Aragonese kingdom of Sicily with the triskeles emblem was adopted by the Sicilian Regional Assembly in 1990. The present design became the official public flag of the Autonomous Region of Sicily on 4 January 2000, after the passing of an apposite law which advocates its use on public buildings, schools, city halls, and all the other places in which Sicily is represented.
Kingdom of Sicily
The Kingdom of Sicily was a state that existed in the south of the Italian peninsula and for a time the region of Ifriqiya from its founding by Roger II of Sicily in 1130 until 1816. It was a successor state of the County of Sicily, which had been founded in 1071 during the Norman conquest of the southern peninsula.
First flag
Manfred, King of Sicily, crowned King of Sicily in 1258, changed the field of the coat of arms of Hohenstaufen family from gold to silver. In 1266 Manfred was killed in the Battle of Benevento, and Sicily was occupied by the French under the command of Charles of Anjou. The banner was lowered, but the black eagle from Swabia on a white background appeared on Sicilian flags for centuries.
Second flag
Charles I used the standard of the House of Anjou. The Angevins lost power on the island after the revolt of the Sicilian Vespers in 1282. Thereafter the old Kingdom of Sicily was centered on the mainland, with its capital at Naples, and although informally called 'Kingdom of Naples' it was still known formally as 'Kingdom of Sicily'. Thus, there were two "Sicilies" — the island kingdom, however, was often called "Sicily beyond the Lighthouse" or "Trinacria", by terms of a treaty between the two states.
Third flag
The next king of Sicily island was Peter III of Aragon of the House of Barcelona. Since Peter III was Manfred's son-in-law, he restored the coat of arms with the black eagle and added four red stripes on a yellow background from his own coat of arms. Until 1296, the coat of arms and the banner derived from it were usually quartered.