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Otok (Vukovar-Srijem, Croatia)

Grad Otok

image by Željko Heimer, 10 October 2009

Overview
Coat of Arms

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Other sites:

Collection of Croatian Local Flags at FAME

Overview

Otok is a community with over 11,000 inhabitants (about 6,000 in the village of the same name) in the middle of the Vukovar-Srijem County,n 29 km south of Vukovar. Beside this Otok by Vinkovci, there is also the Otok Community near Sinj in the Split-Dalmatia County.
The coat of arms of Otok is Or on a base vert a Suvara millhouse proper. This type of mills is driven by horse power and the oldest preserved today in Otok are from the early 19th century.
The flag is yellow with white bordered coat of arms in the middle.
the symbols must have been adopted around 1998, and are described in the statutes of the community.
Sources: Opcina Otok <www.bosut.net> (drfunct), Statut Opcine Otok, 13.12.2002, Službeni vjesnik (Vukovarsko- srijemske županije), br. 13/02, 23.12.2002. <www.vukovarsko-srijemska-zupanija.hr>.
Željko Heimer, 29 July 2004

On 13 July 2006 the Croatian Sabor adopted a new law on local subdivision to replace the previous one from 1997 (amended 15 times since then until 2003). The new law is published in the official gazette: Zakon o podrucjima županija, gradova i opcina u Republici Hrvatskoj, 13.07.2006, Narodne novine, 86/2006, 28.07.2006.The law was promulgated on 19 July by presidential decree and it became valid on the day of its issue in the gazette (28.07.2006).
The community of Otok is promoted to city status.
Željko Heimer, 12 November 2006

The local magazine Otocki list, Glasilo Opcine Otok, srpanj 2006, str. 1, includes a superb drawing of the coat of arms, from which I redraw the symbols.
The decision on the adoption of the symbol is mentioned and in details recounted (in "non-legal" style) in the large document "Project of the total development of Otok": Projekt ukupnog razvoja (PUR) Opcine Otok, travanj 2006, Hrvatski poljoprivredni zadružni savez, page 37-38 of the part 5 available on <www.otok.hr>. The decision is "Odluka o grbu i zastavi Opcine Otok" adopted in 1999 (when Otok still had the community status).
A previously reported site <www.bosut.net> (drfunct) included info on the coat of arms, very much similar to the text in the mentioned PUR for the description of the coat of arms, continuing with a description of the "suvara" mill that ends with ambiguous note that the "author of the suvara souvenir" is Ivan Mršic, academic painter from Ilok. I suspect that this part was taken from some other source (not the 1999 decision) and may have nothing to do with the actual coat of arms design, but then, it may be the same author who did the "souvenir" and the coat of arms.
Željko Heimer, 10 October 2009

Coat of Arms

image by Željko Heimer, 10 October 2009