The black double-headed eagle on a red field is one of the most recognisable flags in the world. For Albanians at home and abroad, it is far more than a national symbol: it is a family badge, a sign of survival, and the reason so many of our designs start with an eagle.
An eagle with two heads
Double-headed eagles appear across the history of the Balkans and the Byzantine world, often read as a ruler watching over both east and west. Albanians made the symbol their own in the 15th century, when it became linked with Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, whose family used the black eagle as its emblem. Under his banner, Albanian nobles united against the Ottoman Empire, and the eagle became the mark of that resistance.
From Skanderbeg to independence
Centuries later, on 28 November 1912, Ismail Qemali raised the red flag with the black eagle in Vlorë as Albania declared independence. The date is still celebrated every year as 28 Nëntor, Flag and Independence Day.
The land of the eagles
Albanians call their country Shqipëria and themselves shqiptarë. The words are popularly linked with shqiponjë, the eagle, which is why Albania is often called “the land of the eagles”. Linguists debate the exact origin of the name, but the feeling behind it is clear: the eagle stands for courage, freedom and a people who kept their identity through centuries of empires.
Wearing the eagle
Today the eagle appears at football matches, weddings and Independence Day parades, and on the clothes of Albanians in London, New York, Zurich and Pristina. Our Albanian T-shirts carry it in different ways: the bold gold eagle, the 1912 independence eagle, and the embroidered Illyrian Split Eagle, half flag eagle, half ILLYRIAN.
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