Banner O Swisserland

It is ane o anerlie twa square sovereign-state banners, the ither bein the Banner o Vatican Ceety. (The ceevil an state ensign, uised bi Swiss ships an boats, haes mair traditional proportions o 2:3.)

Anerlie the dimensions o the cross are formally established syne 1889: "The coat o airms o the federation is, athin a red field, an upricht white cross, whose [four] arms of equal length are a sixth longer than their width." The size o the cross in relation tae the field is no formally established except on the naval ensign, for which the ratio o the size o the cross tae the heicht is 5:8, an tae the lenth is 5:12. A ratio o 2:3 or 7:10 tae the span o the banner is uisual.

Uise o the white cross as a military ensign (attached tae the cantonal banners in the form o strips o linen) haes been uised in the Auld Swiss Confederacy syne the 14t century, but the modren design o a white cross suspendit in a square reid field wis introduced anerlie efter the end o the Napoleonic period, in 1815, an wis introduced as offeecial naitional banner in 1889.