Last modified: 2004-03-06 by dov gutterman
Keywords: lithuania | vilnius |
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by Jaume Ollé, 2 November 1996
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Above is the city flag: The Coat of Arms
depicts St Christopher and Jesus (as a baby). The city also
uses a triangular pennant, red with a small yellow horizontal
stripe in the middle. On the square in front of the old
Town Hall, an impressive number of flag poles all had this
pennant. On other occasions (as shown on local post cards)
these are used for various rectangular flags.
One restaurant showing the city flag had a dark-red background
with a bright red shield but I'm inclined to believe this was an
error in manufacturing.
Festive cream-coloured hanging banners celebrating Mindaugas's
coronation, 750 years ago, were to be seen in a few places.
They consisted basically of a dark, crowned capital letter
"M" ; the largest I saw, a white one (in Knatterfahne
fashion) flew in front of the (Catholic) Cathedral showing some
additional text and accompanied by a city pennant.
In Vilnius and Kaunas, a "Nigerian" flag turned out to
be that of Vilniaus Banka, the difference being the addition of
the bank's name (and symbol?) in what seemed to be grey
lettering... not easy to decipher.
Jan Mertens, 15 August 2003
vil.gif)
from <www.vilnius.lt>,
located by Jan Mertens, 23 August 2003
From <www.vilnius.lt>:
"The Vilnius coat of arms is St. Christopher (Kristupas)
wading in the water and carrying the Infant Jesus on his
shoulders. The coat of arms was given to the city in the seventh
year of its existence, i.e. in 1330.
In pagan times, i.e. until the end of the 14th century, the
Vilnius coat of arms featured Titan Alkis, hero of Lithuanian
ancient tales, carrying his wife Janteryte; on his shoulders
across the river".
Jan Mertens, 23 August 2003