Last modified: 2010-02-19 by dov gutterman
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Republic of Croatia is divided in 21 counties called zupanija
(sg., read zhupaniya). They are administrative units, and slowly
aquiring coats of arms and flags. But historical parts of Croatia
do have coats of arms (those in the crown of the coat of
Croatia). Now they are not officially used by any unit. Some are,
however, often seen, especially the one of Istria (goat) and
Dalmatia (three heads), used by political parties as shields on a
white flag. There are many towns' coats and flags that are used.
Since 1 January 1997, there are 20 counties, plus City of Zagreb
with special status within Zagreb County.
Željko Heimer
The photo of the assembly hall of the former House of the
Counties (Upper House of the Parliement) is available on the parliament site.
The coats of arms of the 20 Counties are set there. Since the
reorganization of Parliament in 2001 it becomes unicameral, and
the House of the Counties was abolished, so this assembly hall is
today used for congressional purposes (named Josip Šokcevic
Hall).
The coat of arms of the Sisak and Moslavina
County is different from the one used by the County itself - by
not having the crown and with some minor differences in drawing -
this is the only coat of arms today that is not officially
approved by the central authorities.
Željko Heimer, 26 May 2007
The HGZD (Croatian Heraldic
and Vexillologic Association) organized a lecture a few days ago
where prof. Josip Kolanovic held us a presentation on coat of
arms and flags of the Units of Local Self-Government (ULS =
counties, cities and communities) in Croatia. Prof. Kolanovic was
the head of the Croatian State Archive since 1991 and member of
the government Commission for approval of coat of arms and flags
of ULS in the Ministry of Administration since its establishment
on his initiative in 1994 until his retirement in 2003. Have a
look on my short report of the event on <www.hgzd.hr>. I
hope that the full text of the lecture shall be available in the
next issue of "Grb i zastava".
For our immidiate interest, I would highlight one info he
presented us. Namely, until the end of September 2007 the
Commission (today within the Central State Office for
Administration) approved coat of arms and flags of all twenty
counties, of 93 cities (out of 127) and of 262 communities (out
of 429). I.e. 375 of total 576 ULS have the approved coat of arms
and flags, being roughly 65% of them. On the other hand, on FOTW
we have data on about 400 flags of ULS that "look" as
if they may have been granted approval, although for the most we
do not have the confirmation that they were indeed approved, and
we have yet some two dozen ULS for which we have data on coat of
arms that might have been approved and if so they would have a
flag to go with them, but we do not have data on it. Obviously
(unless the commission was very busy during the last half a
year), there are more flags in use then those approved (and there
are yet a dozen flags that we know are in use, but by their
design they could hardly pass the approval).
Željko Heimer, 12 April 2008
We are already aware from various sources that the heraldic
company from Rijeka named Heraldic Art d.o.o. and its director
Mladen Stojic are responsible for the majority of the modern
Croatian local coat of arms and flags. I have received from Jovan
Jonovski photos of four posters he received by Mr. Stojic in 2006
when both were attending the establishing assembly of HGZD. These
4 posters, titled "Official coat of arms designs approved by
the Ministry of Administration based on a positive evaluation
from the Commission for approval of coats of arms and flags"
("Likovna rješenja službenih grbova odobrena od
Ministarstva uprave a na temelju pozitivne ocjene od Povjerenstva
za odobrenje grba i zastave", poster, 4 str, Heraldic art
d.o.o. Rijeka (2006.)) include together 160 coat of arms, most
probably the majority of Stojic's approved designs at the time.
If we know that by September 2007 there were altogether 375 coat
of arms approved (numbers presented by prof. Kolanovic in his
lecture for HGZD on 3 Apr 2008, text to be included in the next
issue of GiZ), and presumably some of the new Stojic's design
were also approved in 2006/2007, it is fairly obvious that he is
responsible for at least 50% of the approved coat of arms (e.g.
flag) designs.
The mentioned posters being the largest compendium of the
approved coat of arms, this is an excellent source for us.
However, the truth is that we already know the great majority of
them, however, this confirms that they have actually been
approved (although in many cases we could easily suspect that).
Also, unfortunately, no info on flags is provided there, but once
we know the coat of arms, the flags are easier to get by (being
as a rule, monocoloured with coat of arms on it).
Regarding the faithfulness of the source, one should consider it
the best we could get, as, presumably, the author would have to
know what he designed - however, a grain of salt should be taken
- as I have noticed that in several cases the drawing included is
not the one finally adopted (being a proposal that got
"far" into the adoption process) or that some obvious
errors crept into the drawing. There are also a few cases where I
suspect the Stojic's design was adopted and approved, but
eventually the city decided to employ another artist for slight
redesign - usually heraldically insignificant - and this being
now used - probably without Stojic's knowledge.
Željko Heimer, 23 May 2008
On the link <www.ee.undp.hr>
one may see the "Energy Charter" - a UNDP incited
document for energy efficiency, signed by the county and city
mayors of Croatia as express of their determination to the cause.
The Charter is interesting for us as it is ornamented with the
coat of arms of all the 20 counties and 124 cities of Croatia,
signed by their mayors. The direct link to the charter image is here.
I am quite possitive regarding what they used as the source for
the coat of arms (I can recognize my drawings). This also serve
as a proof that we got them right.
As far as I can tell from this relatively low resolution image,
there are only two images that are not "mine": Skradin
and Supetar, while there are three cities without the coat of
arms (Vis, Obrovac, Ploce).
A detailed study may reveal you that Zagreb is represented (and
signed) twice, among counties and among cities.This is due its
special status.
Željko Heimer, 18 April 2009
The Croatian "Law on local self-government and administration" on the web server of the Croatian Parliament. Article 9 says:
Law of the 29 December 1992.
Source: Parliament of
Croatia.
Pascal Vagnat, 9 September 1996
The general pattern of the Croatan county flags:
They all follow this simple rule - a simple geometric pattern
with the coat of arms in it . Three of the counties chose their
simple geometric pattern as pure field of one colour, but this is
quite regular, IMHO. Two counties have vertical bicolours, one of
them off- centered. Four have horizontal bicolours, and two have
five-striped horizontal bicolours. One has quartered fields, and
one have two tins stripes on top (quite unusual, even original!).
Three have two stripes in the field, one horizontal, one diagonal
and one Israeli style.
Suprisingly, there are no inscriptions, except in one case, in
which inscription is part of the coa. Also in one case, there is
writing, but not in regular flag, but only for special occasions.
Sevetal counties changed flags, soon after their adoption by the
County, when they were not confirmed by the body of the Ministry
of Administration. After minor changes, new improved flags were
adopted. I am aware of two such cases (regarding counties, more
regarding cities and communities) but probably there were more.
Željko Heimer, 28 June 1998
Browsing the official gazzete for flag related material, I
found that recently there were issued regulations for local flags
and Coat of Arms in Croatia. The most important thing in it, for
us, is the part regulating the design of flags - two- coloured
(not bi-colours!) for counties, and one-colored for cities and
communities, in both cases with CoA in the middle or in hoist.
This only confirms the rule that I have found (obviously, not
only me collecting them).
Here is the exctract from the regulations, published in official
gazette NN, 94/1998, 10-JUL-1998. [my comments in brackets]
Ministarstvo uprave Pravilnik o postupku davanja odobrenja grba i
zastave jedinici lokalne samouprave
Ministry of Administration - Regulation on the procedure for
confirmation of the coat of arms and the flag of a unit of local
self-government
Art. 2.
The coat of arms of the unit of local self-government [county,
city and community] should be made according to the rules of
heraldry. A coat of arms consists of a shield and the contents
within it. The coat of arms of a unit of local self-government
can not contain the state coat of arms or a part of it. A unit of
local self-government, as a rule, takes its historical coat of
arms with the shield and its contents.
Art. 3.
In making of the flag heraldic colours are used: white, blue,
yellow, red and green. [what about black?!] A county uses for the
making of the flag, as a rule, two colours, and a city and a
community use, as a rule, one colour. On the flag of a county
there is the coat of arms of the county, on the flag of a city
there is the coat of arms of the city, and on the flag of a
community there is the coat of arms of the community. The coat of
arms is in the middle of the flag or in hoist position. The ratio
of a flag should be 1:2.
Art. 4.
A unit of local self-government lays request for confirmation of
the coat of arms and the flag to the Ministry of Administration.
Željko Heimer ,15 August 1998
The regulations on adoption of the flags for counties, cities
and municipalities prescribe that they have to be of a field of
one colour (or two-coloured in case of the counties) in anyof the
heraldical colours: red, blue, green, yellow and white. (that is,
the five colours are named). Notably, the black is not listed.
One can speculate for the reason, one of the obvious might be the
association of the black with mourning, as Antonio noted.
However, there might be other reasons - black flags have
"association" of anarchy, or in these regions they are
connected with extreme right movements from the World War II.
(cf. Chetnik flag, but also Ustashas used black often, if not so
on flags). There might be other theories, also, but the fact
remains - black is banned from the local Croatian flags.
Željko Heimer, 4 June 2000
