Review article

Animals on Coats-of-arms in the Republic of Croatia

Petar Džaja ; Veterinarski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
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

Abstract

Of the 128 cities in the Republic of Croatia, 50 include animals in their coat-of-arms. These are most often heraldic presentations of real animals, as well as mythological creatures and heraldic beasts, such as dragons, gryphons, and human figures with animal body parts. These are most often birds’ wings, which are typical for the presentation of some saints or angels, whilst the devil is shown in the form of an animal monster (Šibenik). On several of these coats-of-arms we find more than one animal, for instance three storks (Vinkovci), or animals in pairs turned facing one another (lions, Pregrada, Zabok, Ilok), and a horse and dragon in an iconographic presentation of St. George (Senj, Vis and Pag). The fifty coats-of-arms of our cities show a total of 60 animal figures (including heraldic beasts), of which thirteen show birds, sixpairs of birds wings (one alone - Vrbovec, and the others as part of a human body: one woman - Grubišno Polje, one angel – Varaždin, and three showing the Archangel Michael - Trilj, Šibenik and D. Miholjac), four coats-of-arms contain presentations of dragons, three have other heraldic beasts (mermaids, a sea-lion
and a hippogriff), on one coat-of-arms there is the figure of the devil, and others our everyday animals. The animal shown most often, as many as eight times on city coats-of-arms, is the lion, which is shown 11 times (20.37 %). Horses are shown 6 times, a deer four times, an eagle and a stork three times, and a lamb, a falcon and mermaids are shown twice each. A marten, the devil, a wolf, an owl, a hawk, a goat, a dove, a crane, a heron and a cockerel, and some other heraldic beasts, are shown once each. Domestic, wild and mythological animals are shown on 31 coats-of-arms. Domestic animals are shown on 13 coats of-arms. Although the marten is the national symbol of the Republic of Croatia, it is only shown on the coat-of-arms of the city of Pakrac.

Keywords

coat-of-arms; the Republic of Croatia; the Croatian counties; animals

Hrčak ID:

308222

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/308222

Publication date:

26.9.2023.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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