Flags of Europe
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
50 free Flags of Europe trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Europe's flags look simple until you try to tell them apart. A handful of colours, mostly red, white and blue, are stretched across dozens of countries, so the difference between two nations can come down to the order of the stripes, the shade of a single band or a small coat of arms. This quiz describes each flag in words and adds one clue from its history, then asks you to name the country, symbol or person behind it. It covers the big tricolours, the Nordic crosses, the eagles and shields of central and eastern Europe, the microstates and a few famous regional flags, along with the flag of Europe itself. It is written for geography fans, pub quiz teams, teachers and anyone brushing up on flags before a quiz night. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you pick up the legend, revolution or border dispute behind each design as you play.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which country put a gold crown on its blue and red flag after meeting Haiti's identical one at the 1936 Olympics?
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein added its prince's crown in 1937, the year after the two teams turned up under the same banner. Haiti's only athlete at those Games did not even compete.
Q 02Which country's red flag with a white cross holds the Guinness record as the oldest national flag still in use?
Denmark
Denmark has flown its flag, the Dannebrog, without a break since at least 1625. Legend says it fell from the sky in 1219 and turned a losing battle into a victory.
Q 03Which country's red-over-white flag is nearly identical to Indonesia's, which differs mainly in being longer?
Monaco
Monaco takes its red and white from the heraldic colours of the ruling Grimaldi family, used since at least 1339. Its flag is cut 4:5, while Indonesia's is 2:3.
Q 04Which country's blue, yellow and red tricolour is so like Chad's that Chad took the matter to the United Nations?
Romania
Romania went back to a plain tricolour after its 1989 revolution, when protesters waved flags with the communist coat of arms cut out of the middle. Chad raised the likeness in 2004.
Q 05How many gold stars circle the blue Flag of Europe, a number that has never changed as the European Union grew?
Twelve
Twelve was chosen as a symbol of perfection and entirety, not as a count of member states. The design dates from 1955, three decades before the European Communities took it up.
Q 06Which nation's flag shows a red dragon on green and white yet has no place in the Union Jack's design?
Wales
Wales was counted as part of the Kingdom of England when the first Union Flag was drawn up in 1606, so it got no emblem. The green and white behind the dragon are the Tudor family colours.
Q 07Which country's square red flag with a white cross was reversed in colour to create the Red Cross emblem?
Switzerland
Switzerland was the birthplace of the Red Cross movement, whose emblem was formed by reversing the country's federal colours. Its flag is square rather than the usual rectangle.
Q 08Which country's red, white and blue flag, the oldest tricolour still flying, began with an orange stripe on top?
Netherlands
The Netherlands first flew orange, white and blue as the Prince's Flag of its rebel leader, William of Orange. Red gradually took over between 1630 and 1660 as the republic drew away from his house.
Q 09Which country's white flag shows its own outline in copper above two olive branches, avoiding both blue and red?
Cyprus
Cyprus wrote a neutral design into its 1960 constitution, which ruled out blue, red, a cross or a crescent so that neither of the island's two communities was favoured.
Q 10Which country's tricolour puts white between green and orange to stand for peace between Catholics and Protestants?
Ireland
Ireland's tricolour was championed in 1848 by Thomas Francis Meagher, who said its white centre signified a lasting truce between Orange and Green.
Q 11Which country's tricolour was born when white was added to the blue and red cockade of its capital's militia in 1789?
France
France took its flag from that cockade, worn by the Paris militia that helped storm the Bastille. White had been the colour of the royal flag, and red at first sat nearest the pole.
Q 12Which country's black, red and gold tricolour is linked to the uniforms of student volunteers who fought Napoleon?
Germany
Germany's colours are often traced to the Lützow Free Corps, whose mainly black uniforms had red facings and gold buttons. The colours flew over the revolutions of 1848 and returned with the Weimar and Federal republics.
Q 13Which country's green, white and red tricolour was first adopted in 1797 by the short-lived Cispadane Republic?
Italy
Q 21Which country's blue and yellow bicolour was banned under Soviet rule and officially restored in January 1992?
Ukraine
Ukraine's flag was first seen in Lviv during the 1848 Spring of Nations. In 1992 a dark blue was chosen over sky blue because lighter flags faded quickly in the sun.
Q 22Which European flag of white and red carries a bravery medal that Britain's king awarded to a whole population in 1942?
Malta
Malta was awarded the George Cross by King George VI in 1942, and the medal sits in the flag's top corner. Tradition says the white and red were a gift from the Norman Count Roger I in 1091.
Q 23Which European flag, adopted in 1929, is half yellow and half white with crossed keys beneath a three-tiered crown?
Vatican City
Italy keeps 7 January as Tricolour Day, the date the Cispadane Republic adopted the flag at Reggio Emilia. The three colours had first appeared on a cockade in Genoa in 1789.
Q 14Which country's red and yellow flag carries the Pillars of Hercules and the motto 'Plus Ultra' on its coat of arms?
Spain
Spain's red and yellow were chosen by King Charles III in 1785 from a dozen rival designs for a naval flag that would be easy to identify at sea.
Q 15Which country's green and red flag, adopted after a 1910 revolution, shows an armillary sphere behind a shield?
Portugal
Portugal chose the armillary sphere because its sailors relied on the instrument in the Age of Discoveries. Green and red had been the colours of the republican movement since 1891.
Q 16Which country's flag has nine blue and white stripes, popularly said to match the syllables of 'Freedom or Death'?
Greece
Greece gives the stripes no official meaning, but the popular reading counts five blue for the syllables of 'Eleftheria' and four white for 'i Thanatos'.
Q 17Which country's red flag with a white-edged blue cross was designed in 1821 by Fredrik Meltzer, a member of parliament?
Norway
Norway's designer argued for red, white and blue as 'three colours that now denote freedom'. The king refused to sign the flag law but allowed the design for civilian use.
Q 18Which country's flag of white over red takes its colours from the white eagle and red shield of its coat of arms?
Poland
Poland made white and red its official national colours in 1831, though the pair had been tied to the country and its royal banners since the Middle Ages.
Q 19Which country's red-white-red flag is said to recall a duke's blood-soaked tunic, left white where his belt had been?
Austria
Austria's legend credits Duke Leopold V, whose white surcoat was drenched in blood at the Siege of Acre. The red-white-red pattern is first documented on a seal of 1230.
Q 20Which country's vertical tricolour of black, yellow and red takes its colours from the arms of the Duchy of Brabant?
Belgium
Belgium's first revolutionary flag in 1830 had horizontal stripes and was hastily made at a fabric shop near Brussels city hall. The bands were turned upright the following year.
Vatican City owes its colours to 1808, when Pope Pius VII swapped red for white so his guards could be told apart from troops absorbed into Napoleon's army.
Q 24Which country's white flag with a blue cross is said to show its thousands of lakes and its winter snow?
Finland
Finland calls it the siniristilippu, or 'Blue Cross Flag'. Tradition traces the design to the poet Zachris Topelius, who proposed it in about 1860.
Q 25Which country's blue flag gained a red cross inside its white one in 1915 to set it apart from similar designs?
Iceland
Iceland's flag law describes a sky-blue field with a snow-white cross and a fiery-red cross inside it. The colours are commonly read as volcanic fire, ice and the surrounding sea.
Q 26Which country's red flag with a white crescent and star is hailed as 'the red banner' in its national anthem?
Turkey
Turkey kept the last Ottoman flag when the republic was declared in 1923. The white star and crescent on red had flown over the empire since 1844.
Q 27Which saint, said to have been crucified on an X-shaped cross, gives Scotland's flag its white diagonal cross on blue?
St Andrew
St Andrew's cross is said to have become Scotland's emblem on the eve of the Battle of Athelstaneford in 832. Pictures of the apostle on a diagonal cross appear on Scottish seals from 1180.
Q 28Which country's red flag bears a black double-headed eagle taken from the arms of its hero Skanderbeg?
Albania
Albania made it the national flag at independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1912. Skanderbeg had taken the eagle from the Eastern Roman imperial banner for his 15th-century revolt.
Q 29Which country's flag has a red and white checkerboard shield topped by a crown of five smaller shields?
Croatia
Croatia put the checkerboard back in 1990, replacing the red star of the communist era. The five small shields stand for its historic regions, among them Dubrovnik, Dalmatia and Istria.
Q 30Which island's red flag shows three armoured legs with golden spurs, their feet all pointing clockwise?
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man made the three legs its official flag in 1932, but they come from a coat of arms dating back to the 13th century. Islanders call them 'ny tree cassyn'.