National symbols

THE FLAG

The flag of Georgia also known as the Five Cross Flag was adopted in January 2004, and originates as the flag of the United National Movement, being widely used during the "Rose Revolution" of 2003.

The Georgian flag's historical inspiration is the red-on-white Jerusalem cross shown as the flag of Tblisi in the 14th-century map by Domenico and Francesco Pizzigano.

The national flag of Georgia, as described in the Presidential decree No. 31 of January 25, 2004:

“     The Georgian national flag is a white rectangle, with in its central portion a large red cross touching all four sides of the flag. In the four corners there are four bolnur-katskhuri crosses of the same color (as the large cross).“  

History of the flag

The current flag was used by the Georgian patriotic movement following the country's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. By the late 1990s, the design had become widely known as 'the Georgian historical national flag' as vexillologists had pointed out the Tbilisi flag in the Pizzigano chart.

A majority of Georgians, including the influential Catholicos-Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church, supported the restoration of the flag and in 1999 the Georgian parliament passed a bill to change the flag. However, it was not endorsed by the President, Eduard Shevardnadze. It was adopted in the early 2000s by the main opposition party, the United National Movement led by Mikheil Saakashvili, as a symbol of popular resistance to Shevardnadze's rule.

The flag was adopted by the Georgian parliament on January 14, 2004. It was formally endorsed by a presidential decree signed by Saakashvili on January 25, following his election as President of Georgia.

Medieval Georgian flags
Flag of Georgian kingdom of Iberia during the reign of King Vakhtang I, 5th century.
The white flag with the single red St. George's cross was used by the Georgian King Vakhtang Gorgasali in the 5th century.
Queen Tamar (d. 1213) according to tradition used a flag with a dark red cross and a star in a white field.

In the 1367 map by Domenico and Francesco Pizzigano, the flag of Tifilis (Tbilisi) is shown as a Jerusalem cross (a large cross with smaller crosses in each quarter). According to D. Kldiashvili (1997), the Jerusalem cross might have been adopted during the reign of George V of Georgia.

COAT OF ARMS OF GEORGIA

The coat of arms of the Republic of Georgia was adopted on 1 October 2004. It is partially based on the medieval arms of the Georgian royal house of Bagrationi.

Gules, with an image of Saint George, riding a horse trampling upon a crawling dragon, whose head is pierced by the saint's spear, all of them Argent. It has two lions rampant as supporters of the shield, which is surmounted with the royal crown of Georgia, all of them Or. The motto below the shield reads as : "Strength is in Unity" (Dzala Ertobashia, written in the Mkhedruli script of the Georgian alphabet