Flags and arms of cantons of Switzerland Schwenkel. Zürich attached the Swiss cross in the red Schwenkel rather than in the main flag, and this may have contributed to the development of the flag of Switzerland (placing the white cross in a red field by default). The city of Bern is a Zähringer foundation of 1160. In the 13th century, its flag showed a black bear in a white field, changed to the current red-and-yellow diagonal arrangement in 1289. Bern also had a war flag with a simple red-and-black horizontal division. The cantonal colours remain red and black. The blue-and-white flag is attested from 1386. The vertical
Flag of Switzerland so that the ratio of cross to flag width is 5:12. The shade of red used in the flag was not defined by law prior to 2017. The 2017 flag law specifies the colour of the flag as: In 2004, the Federal Chancellery published a corporate design guide for the federal administration, in force since 1 January 2007. The colour specifications given there are compatible with those later put in the annex to the flag law. The matching of heraldic tincture to modern color specifications for print or screen display is very uncertain, and to some extent left to the