The national flag of Croatia (known locally as the Trobojnica, or “Tricolor”) consists of three red-white-and-blue horizontal stripes of equal size, with the coat of arms of Croatia in the middle. It mostly combines the colors of the historic constituent states of the Croatian Kingdom:
- Croatia (red and white)
- Slavonia (blue and white), today part of Croatia and Serbia
- Dalmatia (blue and yellow), which historically included the Bay of Kotor in present-day Montenegro
While Croatia was part of the former Yugoslavia, its tricolor was the same, but in place of the coat of arms, it had a 5-pointed red star with a yellow border. In December 1990, shortly after the first multiparty elections, but about 10 months before its proclamation of independence from Yugoslavia, the star was replaced. The new shield, which took the place of the star, is patterned with red-and-white checks, above which is a crown made with the ancient arms (shields) of its various regions: (from left to right) Croatia, Dubrovnik, Dalmatia, Istria and Slavonia.
Traces of Places 