Filed under: Know Your Flags | Tags: basque, bilbao, biscay, flag, france, franco, gernika, guernica, ikurrina, soccer, spain
This week’s installment of Know Your Flags represents a region spanning two countries and hundreds of thousands of emigrants across the world. The Ikurriña is the official flag of the Basque Country Autonomous Community of Spain and the unofficial national symbol of the wider Basque Country that spans north-central Spain and southwestern France.
Santo Tomás 2008
Banned for nearly 40 years, the Ikurriña was designed by the founders of Basque nationalism, Luis and Sabino Arana. The Basque separatist group ETA began displaying it in public places as an act of defiance. Much like the Basque language, the only safe haven for the Ikurriña during Franco’s reign were soccer stadiums.
Ikkuriña at San Mamés, home of Athletic Bilbao
Almost identical in design to the Union Jack, The red bottom symbolizes the Biscayan people; the green represents the Oak of Guernica; and the white cross, Basque Catholicism.
Ikkuriña balkoian
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