Chile

Specification

Article 1 of Law 2,597 defines the colors as azul turquí (deep blue), white, and red. Red fills the lower half; blue occupies the hoist-side third of the upper half, with white across the remainder. The law fixes both the overall ratio and the star’s size and central position.

Colors and specimen

The cited legislation supplies color names, without numeric color coordinates or a physical swatch standard. The values below are read from this SVG; they are screen approximations, not prescribed manufacturing colors.

Construction notes

For hoist H, use a fly of 3H/2 and divide the height at H/2. The blue canton is H/2 square. Its center lies H/4 from both the hoist and top edge. The specified star diameter is H/4.

The specimen interprets “diameter” as the diameter of the circle through the star’s outer tips, using a regular five-pointed star with one tip upright. Article 1 does not separately prescribe the inner radius or star orientation. These rendering conventions should not be presented as additional statutory dimensions.

In the SVG’s 900 × 600 coordinate system, the visible canton is 300 × 300, the star center is (150,150), and its outer radius is 75. The red lower field covers the extra depth of the underlying blue path. The artwork’s geometry is retained from Commons; a viewBox and accessible metadata have been added locally.

Symbols and interpretation

The government’s country reference associates blue with the sky and Pacific, white with Andean snow, and red with the independence struggle. It gives interpretations of the lone star as the powers of the state or the unitary state. These are explanatory traditions, not construction rules or a single legally mandated meaning.

Historical record

The preamble to Decree 1,534 identifies 18 October 1817 as the establishment date under Bernardo O’Higgins, with José Ignacio Zenteno serving as war minister. This establishes administrative responsibility without settling authorship of the artwork.

The National Cultural Heritage Service explains that the flag used for the independence oath on 12 February 1818 also carried an emblem. The specimen here depicts the current statutory flag and is not a reconstruction of that early object.

Law 2,597 was promulgated on 11 January 1912 and published on 12 January. Decree 1,534, promulgated on 18 October 1967 and published on 12 December, consolidated the description and display rules. These later specifications are distinct from the 1817 adoption date.

Usage and status

Law 20,537, articles 1–2, recognizes the Bandera Nacional or Pabellón Patrio as a national emblem and permits respectful use or hoisting without prior authorization, subject to display regulations. Institutional use has its own rules.

Under Decree 1,534 as amended in 2013, obligatory hoisting dates are 21 May and 18–19 September. When displayed flat, horizontally or vertically, the blue square belongs at the viewer’s upper left. The decree treats the presidential standard as a separate emblem.

Source trail

Checked 6 September 2026. Legal texts are in Spanish; English descriptions above are editorial paraphrases.

• BCN / Law 2,597, article 1 — statutory description, ratio, star size, and promulgation.
• Ministry of the Interior / Decree 1,534, consolidated through 29 January 2013 — preamble and articles 1–3, 7–8; adoption, specification, and use.
• BCN / Law 20,537 — statutory names and current permission to use the national flag.
• Government of Chile / Nuestro país — common name and symbolic interpretations.
• National Cultural Heritage Service / history of the national flag — distinction between the early independence specimen and current design.
• Wikimedia Commons / Flag of Chile.svg — source code, contributor history, and CC0/public-domain declarations; local asset review.