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Vinkovci (Vukovar-Srijem, Croatia)

Grad Vinkovci

Last modified: 2005-02-19 by dov gutterman
Keywords: vukovar | srijem | vinkovci | vukovarsko-srijemska |
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by Željko Heimer



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Other sites:

  • Collection of Croatian Flags at FAME.

Overview

The coat of arms of Vinkovci is adopted on 22 September 1922, and was designed by painter Mirko Rački after the idea of Mate Medvedović, city councelor and founder of the civic museum. The symbolic of the coat of arms is official explained like this - the mural crown reminds to the Roman city of Cibaliae, upon which Vinkovci was buid; three bunches of grapes in the colours of the Croatian tricolour in golden field and three corn ears in the red one represent the wealth of the region; in the base blue field there is a stone table - the symbol of the part that Vinkovci had in the national movement of 1848; three silver storks are for the wealthy marshy area. The silver bars stand for the river of Bosut with its tributary Ervenica (or Nevkoš, according to another tradition).
The flag may have origin in the same period. It consist of a field of white and golden-yellow lozenges and with the coat of arms of the city in the middle. The ceremonial flag have the lozenges in lower edge continue into tails, while the common version is more traditionally rectangular. Between 1993 and 1997 Vinkovci was temporarily seat of the County.
Source: Vinkovci OnLine <www.gkvk.hr> 20 June1998.
Željko Heimer

I managed to get a copy of an article on the flags in the Vukovar-Srijem County [sal95]. Regarding the city of Vinkovci, the coat of arms was adopted in 1922 (as we know) after Vinkovci was made into a city status in 1920 (5 November). Oddly the decision claims that the coat of arms is from 1923:   "Vinkovci OnLine <www.gkvk.hr>: o grbu i zastavi grada Vinkovaca, 19. srpnja 1993, Službeni vjesnik, br. 4, 11. listopada 1993.  
A book from 1964 is mentioned "Grb grada Vinkovaca" by Matija Klajn. From there is mentioned that the design of the coat of arms in 1920's was suprevised by Ivan Bojnicic, a leading heraldist of the time (cf. his "Der Adel von Kroatien und Slavonien", 1898). It was critically described by Isidor Kršnjavi, an other prominent Croat. Apparently the coat of arms is practically continually without any changes in use since 1920's, which is, let's say, unusual for the coat of arms in this part of the world. The flag is designed by the same Dubravko Matakovic I mentioned above. The source provides much details on the lozenge construction: overall dimensions 100x200 cm. the lozenge side is 17.5 cm long, the distance between paralel edges is 15 cm. The top edge consists of 6 golden half-lozenges, the bottom has full lozenges as tails. The coat of arms is set 30 cm from vertical edges and 65 cm from top, The coat of arms is 40 cm wide and 60.4 cm high. (This being copies from the decision).
Željko Heimer, 16 January 2005

I received answer to my e-mail to Dubravko Matakovic, very kindly... Indeed the designer of the two flags in 1993 was one and the same artist who is also the famous comics artist. He has been commisioned to prepare the modernized versions of the Coat of Arms of the Vukovar-Srijem County and the city of Vinkovci (that were the temporarily capital of the county while Vukovar was occupied 1990-1995). He did that without interfering much into the historical patters he had, but it was apparently his idea to change the cypress (or poplar) into an oak, which is indigineous, while the other is not. He was asked to do the flags too. The guidelines he received was to make the city flag "similar to Bavarian" but with golden and silver lozenges, so he came out with the adopted design. Also he then decided the striped flag for the county to be kind of similar. As he admits, he had no previous knolage of vexillology or the flag design, and considering, it came out very nice - certainly these are among more interesting local flags in Croatia (approved before the ministry prescribed the one-coloured rule for the civic flags in 1994...).
Željko Heimer, 16 January 2005


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by Željko Heimer


Coat of Arms


by Željko Heimer