The municipality of Rosario (908,163 inhabitants in 2001, 17,869 ha) is the third biggest town in Argentina, after Buenos Aires and Córdoba. The town is known as the "Cradle of the Argentine Flag"; the National Flag Memorial recalls that General Manuel Belgrano raised there on 27 February 1812 for the first time the newly created Argentine flag.
On 3 June 2010, "Rosario3" reported the adoption on the same day of the municipal flag of Rosario by the Municipal Council. The flag, promoted by Mayor Miguel Lifschitz, is white with the municipal shield designed by the painter Julio Vanzo in the middle.
The municipal shield of Rosario is presented on the municipal website. In 1939, the Government of the Province of Santa Fe allowed the municipalities to use a shield. Rosario already had a shield, designed in May 1862 by Eudoro Carrasco. The original design was subjected to several variations, thus a norm defining the shield's design was required.
Municipal Decree No. 1737/1964, adopted on 18 December 1964 and promulgated on 8 January 1965, prescribes the shield, with a drawing made by Julio Vanzo, based on a sketch elaborated in 1957 by Angel Guido, the designer of the National Flag Memorial and of the Post Office.
Municipal Decree No. 15810 (1998) prescribes the use of the coat of arms in front of the municipal building and on official documents.
The shield is officially described as follows:
Oval shape divided into two fields by a horizontal line.
The upper field celeste blue charged with a rising sun with 16 flaming right rays; the face of the sun with almond-shaped eyes of native type, eyebrows and part of the nose.
In the lower field on dexter an island shown in full and the coasts of another two islands; in the
middle river Paraná sailed by a sailboat and a steamboat, ending in the sinister part in a bastion
standing on a precipice, with three cannons on the crenels and an arm raising the national flag up to the middle of the shield.
The precipice charged with a wheat garb, a maize garb, an anchor, a scythe and a plough placed harmoniously.
The oval surrounded dexter by a laurel branch and sinister by an olive branch, tied under the shield by a ribbon of the colours celeste blue and white of our homeland.
Colours: gold for the sun, sinople (green) for the islands and the precipice, gules (red) for the bastion, celeste for the sky, gold for the grains and steel grey for the tools.
The line drawing appended to the 1964 Decree gives additional colour specifications: green for the branches, red for the berries, brown for the flag staff, dark brown for the ship hulls, light yellow for the maize, dark brown for the anchor, and dry-leaf yellow for the wheat.
Both on the drawing of the shield shown on the municipal website and on the photo of the flag shown in the "Rosario3" article, the upper field of the shield is shown in white instead of prescribed light blue.
![[Municipality of Rosario flag]](../images/a/ar-s-ro.gif)
image by Ivan Sache, 07 June 2010
