Last modified: 2009-10-02 by dov gutterman
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image by Željko Heimer, 6 May 2000
Communities:
See also:
The flag and Coat of Arms of Sarajevo can
be found at: <www.sarajevo.ba>
. There is just the picture of the coat of arms, not the flag,
but there are two official documents on the coat of arms and flag
of that city. I think it is horizontally striped with the coat of
arms in the middle, proportions 1:2 but I don't understand the
two colours. Green over white?
Pascal Vagnat , 4 May 2000
The page indeed consist of the legal provisions regarding Coat
of Arms and the flag of the city of Sarajevo. Both decisions are
named temporary (or provisional) no doubt because the statute of
the city is temporarily also. I guess it is still not decided
what will be with the city now, when one have half-a-dozen
communities dividing it (but that situation is no different then
before the war, though) on one hand, and on the other the Sarajevo Canton (Sarajevski kanton) that
almost entirely covers it. The decision are named:
(1) Privremena odluka o grbu i zastavi Grada Sarajeva, 28. marta
1998. Sluzbene novine Kantona Sarajevo, 6/98
(2) Privremena odluka o upotrebi grba i zastave Grada Sarajeva,
28. marta 1998, SNKS [6/98?]
The first one is actually decision on the coat of arms and the
flag, while the other one regulates their use. The coat of arms
is described (art. 2 of (1)) as (my translation):
"The coat of arms represent the elements of the typical
roofs that in the same time symbolize the hills. The symbol of
the city is made of civic walls with doors. The lower part of the
coat of arms makes the terrain configuration - valleys with a
bridged river over which the city is set."
Note that the colours are not mentioned at all. If we are to
believe the graphics from the mentioned site, the shield is
white, bordered golden, roofs-hills are green, walls black and
base blue with white bridge.
The flag is defined imidiately in article 3:
"The flag of the City is light blue. The coat of arms in the
flag is in the center. The flag can be made in different sizes,
while retaining the ratio 2:1."
The coat of arms graphical representation is part of the
decision, while the flag is not mentioned in that part. Also, it
is notable that the size of the coat of arms is not determined in
more details.
The second document is more or less standard and similar to the
usage provisions of the civic symbols in this region. A detail
that may be interesting to note is that there is provision
allowing a car flag "of appropriate size" for the
mayor.
As far as I am aware, the oldest representation of the coat of
arms of Sarajevo is on 1970 Yugoslav stamp issued commemorating
25 years of liberation of the city (6 April 1945). I have no firm
evidence, but based on the overall layout of the coat of arms, it
may very well be that the CoA was actually devised just for that
purpose and that this stamp is, if not the premiere, the
certainly the first "massive" publication of it. If I
am right about that, it may be that the flag - light blue
with that coat of arms in the center - was adopted at the same
time, though I have no evidence on that (not even on the
existance of that flag). Hopefully, we'll find some evidence in
support of this, or against it in future. The coat of arms
printed on the mentioned stamp is basically the same as the one
used today, though it differs in colours used (indeed, if the
"current" colours are right ones). In any case, there
the shield is still white (silver), roofs-hills are also green,
but the walls are red, while the river in base is - green! The
shape of the bridge is somewhat different, too (there having
three arches and the "dots" closer to center). In
cheif, inbetween the roofs there was set a red fivepointed star.
This coat of arms was in use until the beggining of the war in
B&H, and fell into disuse, probably, say in May 1991. With
the war in B&H the star was removed, and on several occasions
I have seen the same coat of arms with a fleur-de-lys Or set in
place of the star. It is very likely that such coat of arms was
officially adopted at some time in first half of 1990's. It may
be now that the colour of the base field was changed into blue.
Such coat of arms set in the middle of a light blue flag is
visible on the proposal of the greater coat of arms of the Sarajevo-Centar community coat of arms. It is
hard to see anything there, but it seems that the bridge in that
image is still of tripple arch.
With the ommition of the national(istic) symbols from the entire
iconography in the Federation, it is to be expected that the
fleur-de- lys is removed, as indeed happened in the 1998 decision
quoted above.
As I suspect, the image of the coat of arms provided on the page
may be incorrect, and it should not be ruled out until further
evidence that the coat of arms is not still the same one, minus
the star.
Željko Heimer, 6 May 2000
Here is a photo
of vertical variant of Sarajevo flag. Mostly, this vertical
variant can be seen in the city.
Aleksandar Nemet, 25 June 2009
here is a picture
from cover of a book about Sarajevo, printed in 1965. So, the
coat of arms already exists in 1965.
Aleksandar Nemet, 13 July 2009
The old coat of arms of Sarajevo (in use from 1878) was
replaced in 1965.
Amer Sulejmanagic, 14 July 2009
sa-sa.jpg)
image from <www.sarajevo.ba>
, located by Pascal Vagnat , 4 May 2000
I found this link for the flags and coat of arms of Sarajevo.
There is the image of the coat of arms, but not of the flag.
There is the law on the coat of arms and the flag though, but in
Bosnian language
Pascal Vagnat , 4 May 2000
Privious Coat of Arms
image by Haris Delalic, 1 November 1999
Here are variations of the flag of Sarajevo that were used before the 1998 flag was adopted:
image by Željko Heimer , 6 May 2000
City of Sarajevo 197x-199x. Flag used, probably, since early
1970's to early 1990's.
Željko Heimer , 6 May 2000
image by Željko Heimer , 6 May 2000
City of Sarajevo 199x-1998 flag used, since first half of
1990's to 1998 when the "clear" version was adopted.
Željko Heimer , 6 May 2000
Here is a photo
of flag of Sarajevo from 1973. This flag is red with white coat
of arms.
Aleksandar Nemet, 13 July 2009
image by Željko Heimer, 10 April 2005
sa-sc.gif)
Coat of Arms
image by Željko Heimer, 10 April 2005
Proposal for the Ceremonial Flag - Not Adopted
image by Željko Heimer, 10 April 2005
I located a flag at:
<www.sarajevo-centar.org>.
Dov Gutterman , 8 April 2000
It's flag of community of Sarajevo-Center (Opcina Sarajevo
Centar), the oldest part of Sarajevo, B&H.
Ivan Sarajcic , 8 April 2000
This is what the site says:
This is the new Coat of Arms of the Community of Centar, adopted
on the assembly session in Jul 1999 among several proposals given
by the Concourse commision for the new Coat of Arms and flag
after the public concourse. The author of the design is a young
female designer Semka Guso.
The new Coat of Arms and flag of the Community of Centar were
officially adopted by the Community Council on its session on 21
October 1999. It was decided that the colours (yellow and blue)
on the flag be darker to match those on the flag of B&H.
The Coat of Arms is dominated by an unusual tree - a motive
copied from a standing stone [mideval grave stone typical for
B&H] in the Land Museum symbolizing the growth of the
Community and security, and the blue band represent the river
Miljacka [river of Sarajevo]. The base of the shield is red land
from which the tree is growing while green field is symbol of the
healthy natural environment for the life.
This image is the original proposal of the author for the flag of
the Community with the ceremonial Coat of Arms (that one is
prescribed for memorial plates and similar occasions). The design
of the adopted flag is the same, but the shade of blue and yellow
is darker.
Željko Heimer, 9 April 2000
The site mentioned above (<www.sarajevo-centar.org>)
shows a different flag now. Maybe there has been a recent change
?
Above is the new version of the flag of Centar-Sarajevo.
Pascal Gross, 30 June 2000
My comment of 9 April 2000 goes about the previously shown
flag there that was slightly different and it was only a proposal
for the ceremonial flag, not adopted.
Therefore we have this today: The coat of arms is vert base gules
divided with a wavy bar azure fimbriated argent and overall a
golden stylized three with two birds. The wavy bar represents the
Miljacka river and the tree is a copy of a tree found on a
medieval stone monuments known as stecci, preserved in the Land
Museum in Sarajevo. The flag is blue, white and golden/yellow
tricolour divided diagonally with the coat of arms in the middle.
While the 1999 proposal is: The ceremonial flag proposed
in 1999 was similar to the finally adopted one, bearing the
lighter shades of blue and yellow (probably as the originally
proposed normal flag) and having a ceremonial varison of the coat
of arms in the middle. Nither the ceremonial coat of arms nor the
ceremonial flag were adopted in the end. One may notice
that the ceremonial coat of arms pictures two flags, the sinister
one it that of the city of Sarajevo (at the time already
abandoned in 1998), and the dexter one may have been intended of
the Canton of Sarajevo, but if so it is a stylization (the
cantonal flag was at the time also in the process of adoption).
Željko Heimer, 10 April 2005
