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Natural Earth 1:10m · 26 cantons
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Swiss Canton Flags Quiz

The square flags of the twenty-six cantons on a flat map of Switzerland. Click a canton or drag the flag onto it: three tries per flag, then the map shows the answer. Two names, two hints and two skips are free for the round.

Drag the flag onto a canton, or click the canton. Name shows the canton the flag belongs to, Hint opens all three facts about it; after three misses, or Skip, the map places it for you. Scroll or pinch to zoom in.

All 26 cantons and their capitals, the flags explained, more maps ↓

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Swiss Canton Flags Quiz

Drag the square flags of the 26 Swiss cantons onto a flat map, three tries each. No labels.

Square banners from the battlefield: cantonal flags as medieval heraldry

Swiss cantonal flags are square because they descend from medieval war banners, and each is simply the canton's shield spread over a square. The oldest, the bull of Uri, the red of Schwyz, the bear of Bern, the diagonal of Zürich and the saint of Glarus, were flying by the fifteenth century. Schwyz gave the country its name, and the national flag grew out of the red banner of Schwyz and the white cross Confederate soldiers wore.

The cantons created in 1803 and 1815 had no medieval banners. Green, the colour of liberty in the revolutionary years, dominates St. Gallen, Thurgau, Vaud and Neuchâtel; St. Gallen's white fasces is a republican symbol from revolutionary France; Vaud wrote its motto Liberté et Patrie in gold on white over green; Aargau's three white stars stand for the three territories joined in 1803, under three wavy lines for the river Aare; Valais counts its thirteen districts in stars.

Bears, a bull, a ram and a saint: the animals and the one person

Bern's black bear walks up a yellow diagonal on red; by the well-known legend Duke Berchtold V named the city in 1191 after the first animal killed on a hunt. The two Appenzells share the upright black bear of the Abbey of St. Gallen, which once ruled them, on white; Ausserrhoden adds the black letters V and R, for the old spelling Vsser Rhoden. Uri's bull's head and Schaffhausen's crowned, leaping ram, both black on yellow, are puns on the cantons' names, Ur for the aurochs and Schaf for sheep. Graubünden's is three flags in one, for the leagues that made it: the Grey League's black and white, the blue and gold cross of the League of God's House, the black ibex of the Ten Jurisdictions. Glarus alone has a person on its flag: St. Fridolin, its Irish missionary patron, in a black habit with staff and book on red. Geneva pairs half an imperial eagle on yellow, for its old standing as an imperial city, with the gold key of St. Peter on red. Thurgau's two gold lions on a green and white diagonal are the Kyburg counts'.

Keys, croziers and stars: symbols that count something

Both halves of Unterwalden carry the key of St. Peter: Nidwalden's is a white double key on red, Obwalden's a single key across red over white, coloured the opposite way on each half. Three flags carry the crozier of the old Prince-Bishopric of Basel: Basel-Stadt's is black, hook to the hoist; Basel-Landschaft, which broke away from the city in 1833, turned its crozier the other way, made it red and added seven small knobs; Jura's is red, faces the hoist again, and stands beside seven red and white stripes for the districts of the historic Jura. Valais sets thirteen stars in columns of four, five and four on white at the hoist and red at the fly; the middle column straddles the join, each star half white, half red. Neuchâtel's green, white and red tricolour dates from 1848, when the canton threw off its Prussian prince; the small white cross in the upper fly corner declares it Swiss.

Plain halves and diagonals: the cards most often mixed up

Fribourg is black over white, Solothurn red over white, Lucerne white over blue, Ticino red over blue, and Zug white with a blue band through the middle; Obwalden is Solothurn with the key laid on it. Zürich and Thurgau share the same diagonal cut: Zürich is blue and white and empty, Thurgau green and white with a lion in each half. Schwyz and Neuchâtel both hide a small white cross in a top corner: Schwyz's is by the hoist on plain red, Neuchâtel's at the fly of a tricolour. Uri and Schaffhausen are both a black beast on yellow: Uri a head seen from the front with a red nose ring, Schaffhausen a whole ram in mid-leap. The bears sort by what is under them: a diagonal band for Bern, plain white for Innerrhoden, letters for Ausserrhoden.

All 26 cantons and their capitals

26 cantons are on this map, listed in alphabetical order with their capitals — the same facts the Hint button draws on. All of them are in the deck.

  1. AargauAarau
  2. Appenzell AusserrhodenHerisau
  3. Appenzell InnerrhodenAppenzell
  4. Basel-LandschaftLiestal
  5. Basel-StadtBasel
  6. BernBern
  7. FribourgFribourg
  8. GenevaGeneva
  9. GlarusGlarus
  10. GraubündenChur
  11. JuraDelémont
  12. LucerneLucerne
  13. NeuchâtelNeuchâtel
  14. NidwaldenStans
  15. ObwaldenSarnen
  16. SchaffhausenSchaffhausen
  17. SchwyzSchwyz
  18. SolothurnSolothurn
  19. St. GallenSt. Gallen
  20. ThurgauFrauenfeld
  21. TicinoBellinzona
  22. UriAltdorf
  23. ValaisSion
  24. VaudLausanne
  25. ZugZug
  26. ZürichZürich

Questions about these flags

Why are the Swiss cantonal flags square?

Because they descend from the square war banners the cantons carried in the Middle Ages, and each simply spreads the canton's coat of arms over a square field. The Swiss national flag is square for the same reason, one of very few in the world; only at sea, on Swiss merchant ships, does it become a rectangle.

How do you tell the two Basel flags and Jura apart?

All three show the crozier of the Prince-Bishops of Basel. Basel-Stadt's is black with the hook towards the hoist. Basel-Landschaft's is red, turned towards the fly, with seven small knobs on the curve. Jura's is red with the hook towards the hoist, and has seven red and white stripes beside it for the districts of the historic Jura.

Which is the youngest canton, and what is on its flag?

Jura, which separated from Bern after a series of votes and joined the Confederation on 1 January 1979. Its flag pairs the red crozier of the Prince-Bishopric of Basel, which ruled the region until the French Revolution, with seven horizontal stripes of red and white for the seven districts of the historic Jura, only three of which became the new canton.

More maps

Other maps: US states, Australian states, Ukrainian oblasts, UK counties, French regions, Spanish regions, Italian regions, Japanese prefectures, Brazilian states, Polish voivodeships, German states, Dutch provinces, Swedish counties, Canadian provinces, Mexican states, Argentine provinces. All 235 flags of the world with their capitals: Flags of the world · all modes.