Last modified: 2010-02-12 by dov gutterman
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image by Željko Heimer, 24 August 2009
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The community of Ražanac is in the Zadar County, about 20
km northeast of Zadar at the coast of
the Velebit chanel that enters deeply towards south in the middle
of the Eastern Adriatic coast. About 3,000 inhabitants, some
1,000 in the place of the same name itself. The modern settlement
was established in 1507 when the people descended towards the
coast for the easier defence against the Turks - and they begun
building a forthress. The fortress is nowdays only a ruin,
destroyed by Turks in 1570.
The county web site includes the official
gazette that includes the "Proposal for the decision on
the description and the use of the coat of arms and the flag of
Ražanac": Prijedlog Odluke o opisu i uporabi grba i
zastave opcine Ražanac, 27.09.2006, Službeni glasnik
Zadarske županije, br. 16/06, 15.12.2006.
I guess that the decision is titled "proposal" because
the approval from the central authorities is still being waited
upon, although I see no reason for it to be denied. In any case,
beside the title, there is no other hint that this is not a
definitive decision.
The coat of arms of Ražanac is: azure a tower embatteled
with a window and doors opened followed with eight bees or,
three-two-three. I located no images, but I think that this mean
that the tower is surrounded with bees - althogh we should yet
see.
Since the community is composed of nine settlements -
Ražanac plus eight neighbouring places, the coat of arms may
represent those: the tower for Ražanac itself and the eight
bees for the other eight places.
The flag is light blue with the coat of arms in the middle. No
yellow border aroudn the coat of arms is mentioned, but that does
not mean that there shall be none.
Željko Heimer, 8 June 2007
The community
website showes the coat of arms and the flag. The page shows
a flag with yellow vine and olive branches added beneat the coat
of arms in the middle of the flag - but this is, in my humble
opinion, simply an "invention" of the webmaster of the
site. However, this arrangement may possibly be part of the
ceremonial flag (on which we have no other reports or hints so
far). The page claims at the bottom (and I have no reason not to
believe it) that the Central office for administration granated
the approval for the coat of arms and the flag in May 2007.
On the other hand, the mentioned web site provides us with
aditional explanation of the coat of arms/flag symbolic to what I
already reported. Namely, the origin of the design of the coat of
arms is the legend of a heroine named Nidicka. The story is told
on <www.opcina-razanac.hr>
(only in Croatian) and for an 1844 journal - it is a beautiful
story which I summarise here only shorty:
It was during the War of Candia (also known as the Creatan War)
in 1645, the sixth Ottoman-Venetian War, when the Dalmatian coast
around Zadar including Ražanac was held by Venice and the
Turks were not far away in the hinterland. The Bosnian pasha
Ibrahim attacked Dalmatia, a few thousand soldiers marched
towards Nin (Nona) where the main Christian forces in the area
were gathered. Ražanac was fortified with a wall and
surrounded by the sea (the fortress was already destroyed in
1570) although had only local villages to defend it - the
Venetian Republic provided with only 20 soldiers - however, the
men (expect the 20 soldiers) were sent to enlarge the defence of
Nin, so Ražanac was defended only by women and elderly
people. A wing of the Turkish force, with some 700 horsemen
turned toward Ražanac and were confident that they shall
conquer it quickly, noticing that it is defended by women mostly.
A spirit of this odd female company emerged a very old woman
Nidicka, who had no family and "nothing to loose" and
she provided the leadership and spunk to others to fiercely
defend the wall. However, less the 100 defenders had little
chance against the Turks and soon it seemed that the Turkish
victory was inevitable. However, the old Nidicka took a small
group of women they went to the fields to get the bee hives from
there, cut them with axes and threw them into the kindled houses
outside walls among the Turks. The bees thus attacked the Turks
and their horses and they were forced to retreat.
It seems highly probable that the coat of arms and the flag are
designed by the Heraldic Art company from Rijeka, but so far I
have no sources that would confirm that, only the style of the
drawing and the branches are hints to that.
Željko Heimer, 24 August 2009
The new
statutes (Statut Opcine Ražanac, 28.07.2009,
Službeni glasnik Zadarske županije, br. 16/2009,
19.08.2009) have entirely different wording of the article
regarding the coat of arms and the flag then the 2002 statutes. Basically,
it does not say anything more beside the basic general
provisions. It claims that the community has a coat of arms, a
flag and a ceremonial flag to represnt the community and the
affiliation to the community, the use of which is to be
determined by a particular decision of the myaor. The coat of
arms, the flag and the ceremonial flag are determined by a
particular decision by the community assembly.
Željko Heimer, 8 November 2009
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image by Željko Heimer, 24 August 2009