Belgium flag
The flag of Belgium, as an integral symbol of the Kingdom of Belgium, is a rectangular cloth, the sides of which are officially related to each other in the ratio of 13:15. For use for civilian purposes, the proportions of the cloth are 2: 3, which does not contradict the Constitution of the country. Above the Royal Palace in Brussels, the flag has a ratio of 4: 3, which is associated with the peculiarities of spatial perspective. It is these dimensions that provide, in the opinion of the Belgians, the most aesthetic appearance of the state symbol for people looking at it from below..
The civil state flag of Belgium consists of three vertical stripes of equal width. Starting from the shaft, the stripes alternate in the following order: black, gold and red. Its appearance was adopted in 1831 after the Belgian revolution, during which the Southern Provinces seceded from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. Thus the Kingdom of Belgium was formed, and a new flag was raised over it for the first time. Its colors echoed the color of the cloth under which the revolutionaries performed in Brabant in 1798. Then the first attempt was made to free themselves from Austrian rule and proclaim an independent state. The Belgian United States lasted less than a year, but the precedent had a significant impact on the development of this region in the future.
The flag of the Brabant Uprising had a horizontal orientation of stripes, gold was first from below, then black and red. On January 23, 1831, by a decree of the Provisional Government, the vertical arrangement of stripes on the flag was officially fixed, and two weeks later it became the subject of an article of the Constitution of the state..
The state government flag of the kingdom repeats the civil one with the only difference that a crown and a lion resting on its hind legs are depicted on a gold background. This flag was approved as a state flag in 1950, whereas earlier it served as a symbol of the Belgian Navy..
Today the fleet is represented by a white cloth crossed by the cross of St. Andrew. In the upper part of the flag there is a crown and crossed cannons, made in black, below - a ship's anchor. The proportions of the military symbol of the state differ from the civil one and amount to 3: 2.
The flag of the Kingdom of Belgium must be flown over public buildings during most public holidays.
