Last modified: 2009-07-26 by dov gutterman
Keywords: virovitica | podravina | county | croatia | viroviticko-podrvska | zupanija | drava | slavonia | star | crown | eagle | lion | orahovica |
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image by Željko Heimer, 15 December 2008
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I have bought a book: Csa'ki, Imre: A magyar
kira'lysa'g va'rmegyéinek ci'merei a XVIII-XIX. sza'zadban,
Corvina, Budapest, 1995 , in which are shown (one big coat of
arms in each page!) all the coats of arms of the counties of the
Hungarian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the XVIII. and
XIX. centuries.
« Veröce va'rmegye » [Virovitica county]: Polish like shield,
tierced in fess: 1- gules a six-pointed star or; 2- argent a
broad fess vert on which is a running marten natural; 3- gules an
anchor argent and brown per bend. The supporters are: dexter an
eagle regardant sable beaked or, tongued gules; sinister a lion
regardant or tongued gules. The shield is sumounted by a royal
crown or. The whole is on a board.
Pascal Vagnat, 28 June 1998
Without supporters, used today for Virovitica-Podravina
county.
Željko Heimer, 2 July 1998
The Coat of Arms is highly probable is the same as the Historical Coat of Arms (1746): red with green
stripe bordered yellow witn running marten proper, and with a
yellow star in the red field above and an anchor proper
diagonally set in the red field below (to keep the description
simple). Such Coat of Arms (not in "baroque" style as
on my mentioned page, but only a simple shield, as expected) is
published several times in "Globus" .
Željko Heimer, 22 June 1999
The County of Virovitica and Podravina is situated in
north-western part of Slavonia, south of Drava (German: Drau)
river with capital in Virovitica. The city was seat of an ancient
county from middle age, but the region was occupied by Turks and
held for almost 200 years. It was liberated in early 18th century
- 21 July 1718 is counted as the liberation day of Slavonia. The
reestablished county of Virovitica (German: Virovititz,
Hungarian: Vero//ce [ o// is o with two acutes]) covered much
larger region along Drava then today, reaching Donau on the
eastern end, including cities of Djakovo and Osijek. The coat of
arms was granted by Maria Theresia, and verified by the imperial
and royal office in Vienna on 16 May 1746. The coat of arms was:
Gules, on a fess Vert bordered with two bars Argent a Marten
passant proper, in chief a Mullet [of six] Or and in base an
anchor in bend of the third. Crowned with royal crown.
Supporters, dexter an eagle regardant Sable beaked and membered
Or, tongued Gules, sinister a lion regardant Or, tongued Gules.
Compartment: a board Argent. The coat of arms combines the
mideval arms of Kingdom of Slavonia and arms of family Patacic
(Patachich) de Zajezda, Ljudevit Patacic being installed in 1745
as the county supperier officer ("supremus commes" or
"veliki zupan"). See Historical Coat of
Arms (1746).
The county was briefly disbanded in 1785, but restablished in
1790. From that year is preserved a flag in Croatian History
Museum. The flag is red vertically hoisted banner in ratio 1:3~.
In the middle of the field is the shield of the coat of arms,
crowned, and with inscriptions in golden letters in arch, above
"PRO: DEO: REGE: ET: LEGE" (For God, King and Law) and
below "MDCCLXXXX" (= 1790, year of reestablishment and
the production of the flag). See Historical Flag
of Virovitica (Virovititz) County (1790)
The administrative regorganization in 1886 had little effect to
Virovitica county and the coat of arms was continued to be used.
There is no evidence if the previous flag (at that time almost
100 years old) continued to be used, or if there was any used at
all. With the desintegration of Austria-Hungary after WWII the
county system was disbanded, and the symbols, of course, went
into disuse.
When the new administrative division of independent Croatia was
mad in 1993 the old symbols were not entirely forgotten, and they
were basis for the new ones. However, as it shall be seen, at
first the symbols were somewhat changed.
The decision on the coat of arms and the flag (Odluka o grbu i
zastavi Zupanije Viroviticko-podravske, 27 May 1994, Sluzbeni
glasnik ZVP nr. 3/94) determined new coat of arms and flag.
Quoting article 10 of said decision (my translation):
"The coat of arms of the County is rectangular with the
lower side curved and pointe in the midle. It is divided in four
horizontaly fields ordered red, white, green and red. The first
two fields are bar shaped, while the other two are of iregular
shape. In the upper red field there is in the middle a sixpointed
white star in size 1/5 of the width of the coat of arms, while in
the green field there is a black marten running towards left side
of the coat of arms [NB! It's meant non-heraldic left, ZH]. The
ratio of the red and green field in respect to the coat of arms
height is 1:3, while the white field is 1/10 of the coat of arms
width. The coat of arms, the fields and the star are outlined
with black". See Previous Coat of Arms
(1994-1996).
The article 12 of the said decision is simplier and more clear:
"The flag of the County is rectangular and blue. The Ratio
of width to length of the flag is 2:3. In the middle of the flag
there is the coat of arms of the County. The height of the flag
is equal to sum of height and width of the coat of arms."
See Previous Flag (1994-1996).
Such flag and Coat of Arma were probably rejected by the
committee of the Ministry of Administration that is to approve
the design for two reasons:
1. oversimplification of the historical original.
2. one-coloured flag.
The regulations require that the historical coat of arms are
readopted if possible, and that counties should have two-coloured
flag fields. In any case, this symbols were not very much seen in
public (as far as I am aware, none reported them as yet), and
were relatively soon superseeded by a new set.
The decision on change of the previous decision (Odluka o
izmjenama Odluke o grbu i zastavi Zupanije Viroviticko-podravske,
29 August 1996, Sluzbeni glasnik ZVP nr. ?/96) intorduces new
simple descriptions of the coat of arms and the flag. The coat of
arms now reverts to the old pattern, from which is different only
in some colours (of the field between the two rivers, and of the
anchor). Of course, all except the shield is ommited: "On
red shield between two white/silver bars a running marten , in
chief a yellow/golden six-pointed star, in base yellow/golden
anchor" . The flag is described:
"The flag in ratio 1:2, blue-white-blue with yellow/golden
bordered county coat of arms in the middle."
The shade of blue is not specified, but according to the county
official with whom I talked, the light blue is used. Also, if the
stripes are not equal that is not mentioned in the description,
so the only logical is to interpret it as equal-striped triband.
Željko Heimer, 20 August 2000
The excellet drawing of the coat of arms may be found at the
header of the offical
gazettes of the County.
The official gazettes reveals us another data, namely that the
County adopted a decision regulating the use of the coat of arms
and the flag: Odluka o uporabi grba i zastave Viroviticko-podravske
županije, Službeni glasnik VPŽ, br 1/03, 28.
ožujka 2003.
Unfortunately, the 2003 gazette are not on line.
Namely, the gazettes available on the web site include several
decision regarding the grant of use of the County name, which is
apparently also regulated with the same 2003 decision, however,
these decision, beside the mention of the interesting 2003
decision in their preambles, have nothing to to with coat of arms
nor flags. An example may be Odluka o odobrenju uporabe imena
Viroviticko-podravske županije, 8. studenog 2006,
Službeni glasnik VPŽ, br 6/06, 15. prosinca 2006 (see: here).
Željko Heimer, 15 December 2008
image by Željko Heimer, 15 December 2008
I have some doubts regarding the wavy lines in the bars on the
coat of arms, but it is too early to claim anything. In general,
it is highly probable that the coat of arms is just as Janko
reported - it is shield from a historical coat of arms.
Željko Heimer, 17 August 2000
ah-vi.gif)
image by Željko Heimer, 20 August 2000
image by Željko Heimer, 20 August 2000
image by Željko Heimer, 20 August 2000
vi-94.gif)
image by Željko Heimer, 20 August 2000
from Croatian History Museum
site by courtesy of Jelena Borosak Marijanovic.
Bigger image here
Cavalry standard of the Virovitica County 1790
Light brown silk, braids, wood, brass, embroidery
58 x 97 cm, staff length 199 cm
A cavalry standard made of double silk, edged with fringes. The
centre of the flag field on both sides holds the embroidered coat
of arms of the Virovitica County. Above the coat of arms the
embroidered motto reads: PRO: DEO: REGE: ET: LEGE, ('For God,
king and law'), and below the coat of arms the year: MDCCLXXXX
(1790). The flagstaff, similar to a tournament lance, ends with a
heart-shaped finial.
J. Borosak-Marijanovic, Zastave kroz stoljeca, Zagreb,
1996, page 113.
it is worth of noteing that roughly in the same time
Virovitica county had the county flag as well, which was red with
the shield from the Coat of Arms, and same motto (see above).
Željko Heimer, 28 September 1999