What Is the Snake on the Alfa Romeo Logo?

The badge is split down the middle. On the left is a red cross on white, taken from the emblem of Milan. On the right is the biscione on a light blue field, in the original design. A blue ring runs around both, and in 1910 it read ALFA at the top and MILANO at the bottom, separated by two Savoy knots that honored the King of Italy. The first badge was round, enameled brass and 65 mm across. It was made for the 24 HP, the first car of the new company.

Why Milan? A.L.F.A., short for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili, was founded in Milan on 24 June 1910, and the badge reads as a local signature. Nothing in it points to cars or speed. It points to a place.

According to Wikipedia, chief engineer Giuseppe Merosi was asked to come up with a radiator badge. A young draughtsman in the technical office, Romano Cattaneo, suggested including the biscione after seeing the coat of arms on the gates of the Castello Sforzesco. Merosi and Cattaneo sketched it, managing director Ugo Stella approved the sketch, and Cattaneo made the final design. We could not find a portrait of Cattaneo, so the photo shows Merosi.

The badge kept its core and lost its trimmings. In 1918 the name became ALFA-ROMEO, after Nicola Romeo took over the company. In 1925, after the P2 won the first Grand Prix world championship, a laurel wreath was added around it. After the monarchy fell, the Savoy knots were replaced with two curved lines in 1946, and the badge was redrawn at 54 mm.

In 1972 the word MILANO, the curved lines and the hyphen were dropped. The Alfasud that year was the first Alfa Romeo passenger car built outside Milan, at Pomigliano d'Arco near Naples, so the city name no longer fit every car. On 24 June 2015 a redesign by Robilant Associati put the cross and snake on one silver textured field and cut the palette to three colors.