Review article
Animals shown on the coats-of –arms of the municipalities of the Republic of Croatia (Part I)
Petar Džaja
; Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
*
Željko Heimer
Magdalena Palić
; Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Ivan Križek
Ivan Zemljak
Anđelko Gašpar
Krešimir Severin
; Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
There are animals on a quarter of the municipal coats-of-arms in the Republic of Croatia. In many of them they are the only or the central feature, whilst some of the coats-of-arms show animals in a supplementary or auxiliary role, with some other identifying elements.
Of the total of 428 municipalities in the Republic of Croatia, 107 display animals on their coats-of-arms. Some of the municipal coats-of-arms show the same species of animal many times: the coat-of-arms of the municipality of Ražanjac shows eight bees, the coat-of-arms of the municipality of Tribunj shows five fish, the coat-of-arms of the municipality of Sibinj shows four pelicans, and the coats-of-arms of two municipalities show two lions each (Budinščina and Sv. Petar Orehovec), and there are two bears on the coat-of-arms of the municipality of Vrsar, two peacocks on the coat-of-arms of the municipality of Galovac, and two wolves on the coat-of-arms of the municipality of Brinje. On each of the municipal coats-of-arms of Gračac, Draž and Veliki Grđevac there are two different animals, that is, a bear and a fish, a fish and deer horns, and an otter and a fish, respectively. Five municipal coats-of-arms, of Desinić, Đurmanec, Rakovec, Sv. Đurđ and Sućuraj, show a horse and a dragon. Sixteen coats-of-arms show more than one, whether the same or different animals, and the remaining municipal coats-of-arms show one animal each. On the 107
municipal coats-of-arms, therefore, there is a total of 140 animals (41 species). Exactly one quarter of municipal coats-of-arms show animals, where the most coats-of-arms with animals are from the Lika-Senj County (62.5%), then the Zadar County (46.4%), and the least are from the Požega-Slavonia County (0) and the County of Istria (9.7 %). There are bird motifs on 42 municipal coats-of-arms. Twenty-nine show the figures of birds, and on one coat-of-arms there are five (a pelican with four birds), and on one two birds (Galovac). On the remaining coats-of-arms there is one bird each, on six an individual feather, on one a wing, and on six more there are heraldic characters shown with birds’ wings. There are 16 bird species shown in total. Thirty-one coats-of-arms show water animals: on 12 there are fish, where six species can be identified individually on eight coats-of-arms, two species are found on 7 coats-of-arms, and there is one crab and one amphibian (an olm or proteus). Wild, mythical, and domestic animals will be considered in another part of this paper.
Keywords
coats-of-arms; municipalities; the Republic of Croatia; animals; birds; fish
Hrčak ID:
311459
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2023.
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