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The Alfa Romeo badge bearing the heraldic insignia of the serpent and cross is one of the worlds most distinctive automotive emblems. Its creation was the responsibility of Giuseppe Merosi, who also designed the first Alfa car for production in 1910.
Both the central elements of the badge are ancient symbols of the city of Milan. The red cross on the white field dates from the era of the Crusades but can still be seen on city buses and football insignia today. The serpent swallowing a man was the crest of the Visconti family, who ruled Milan in the 13th Century. The two emblems are united over the door of the Sforza castle in the city. An assistant of Merosi's purportedly designed the Alfa badge after seeing the insignia on the Sforza castle while waiting for a bus. The original herladic devices are enclosed in a blue ring, which originally bore the words "Alfa" and "Milano," separaged by two knots which symbolized the royal family. Several changes in the outer ring of the Alfa badge reflect the company's history. Nicola Romeo's name was added when he bought the company in 1916, and an outer ring of laurel leaves was added in 1925 to symbolize Alfa's first world championship. The word "Milano" was dropped in 1972, when the Alfasud went into production near Napoli. The most recent change was in 1981, when the laurel leaves were dropped, presumably in the spirit of modernization.
It was, perhaps, a remarkable decision for a company being founded in 1910 to produce a new technololgy to choose ancient heraldic devices as its insignia. In retrospect, however, that union of of forward and backward views epitomizes the blending of tradition and innovation that makes Alfa Romeos truly different from other automibiles.
The four-leaf clover (quadrifoglio) symbol was also apparently one of Merosi's inventions. It appeared on the identification plates of A.L.F.A cars he designed before the first world war. The quadrifoglio first appeared as the symbol of the Alfa Romeo racing team on cars entered in the 1923 Targa Florio.
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by Dana Loomis of Durham, North Carolina
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