Europe

Flag of Montenegro

Montenegro is a small Balkan nation on the Adriatic Sea that declared independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2006. Its name means 'Black Mountain' in Italian, referring to the imposing dark peak of Mount Lovćen. The country is known for its dramatic mountain landscape, medieval walled towns, and the stunning Bay of Kotor, sometimes described as Europe's southernmost fjord.

CapitalPodgorica
RegionEurope
Current flag since2004
Main coloursRed, Yellow
Populationabout 620,000
Areaabout 14,000 km²
Flags in history4

Population and area are rounded.

What the flag of Montenegro means

Montenegro's flag, adopted in 2004, shows the double-headed golden eagle of the Petrović-Njegoš dynasty on a red field with a golden border. The eagle holds a sceptre and an orb, and on its breast is a shield with a golden lion, an old symbol of the prince-bishops who once ruled Montenegro. The country became independent from its union with Serbia two years later, in 2006.

How to recognise it

Gold-bordered red field with a golden eagle and coat of arms in the centre.

Did you know?

Montenegro means "Black Mountain" in Italian and Venetian — the name given by medieval sailors.

Easily confused with

Montenegro's flag is often mixed up with these. Learn to tell them apart:

North Macedonia

Flag history of Montenegro

Every flag that has flown over Montenegro, from today back through time.

2004–present

Flag of Montenegro

Adopted in 2004 ahead of independence: a red field with a gold border bearing the golden double-headed eagle of the historic House of Petrović-Njegoš, a deliberate break from the Serbian-style tricolor.

1993–2004

Plain tricolor

A red, light-blue and white tricolor in a 1:3 ratio — then the longest national flag proportions in the world — and nearly indistinguishable from Serbia's plain tricolor of the same era.

1946–1993

SR Montenegro

The Socialist Republic's red-blue-white tricolor with a centered gold-bordered red star was visually identical to SR Serbia's flag.

1905–1918

Kingdom of Montenegro

Montenegro was an independent principality and then, from 1910, a kingdom under Nicholas I — the last of the warrior prince-bishops' line — flying a red-blue-white tricolor charged with the royal cypher and the double-headed eagle. Tiny but fiercely independent, the kingdom vanished in 1918 when it was absorbed into the new Yugoslavia, a loss that fuelled Montenegrin identity debates for a century.

Related historical states

Empires, kingdoms and republics that once covered part of Montenegro.

1918–1941

Kingdom of Yugoslavia

The blue-white-red Pan-Slavic tricolor symbolized the union of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, flown by the Kingdom until the Axis invasion of 1941.

1945–1992

Socialist Yugoslavia

Tito's Partisans added a red, gold-bordered star to the tricolor; it marked the country's communist character until the federation's violent breakup in the 1990s.

1905–1918