Flags and arms of cantons of Switzerland is a design by Paul Boesch, dated to 1943. The crozier symbolizes the former Prince-Bishopric of Basel, the seven stripes represent the seven districts of the Bernese Jura. It was officially recognized as a regional flag by Bern from the early 1950s. The canton of Jura was created in 1979 after a referendum, but only three of the seven districts opted to join. The seven stripes were retained in the cantonal flag regardless, and there remains some irredentism calling for a restored unity of all seven districts. Flags and arms of cantons of Switzerland Each of the 26 modern cantons
Cantons of Switzerland Swiss Federal Constitution of 1999 by being joined to their other "half" with the conjunction "and": In contrast, the first article of the 1848 and 1874 constitutions constituted the Confederation as the union of "twenty-two sovereign cantons", referring to the half-cantons as "Unterwalden ( [‘above and beneath the woods’])", "Basel ( [‘city and country’])" and "Appenzell ( [‘both Rhoden’])". The 1999 constitutional revision retained this distinction, on the request of the six cantonal governments, as a way to mark the historic association of the half-cantons to each other. While the older constitutions referred to these states as "half-cantons", a term