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Ochla village (Poland)

Zielona Góra commune, Zielona Góra county, Lubuskie vojvodship

image by Paweł Szymon Towpik, 5 December 2021

Ochla village flag
2005 Proposal
- Village flag
- Coat of Arms

See also:

Ochla village flag

I am the author of the crest and flag village Ochla in town Zielona Góra. I am historian, heraldry professional and Nowe Miasto district councilor (https://www.naszaochla.zgora.pl) in Zielona Góra (this is where the town of Ochla is located). In 2020 I have redesigned the Ochla crest and flag.

What has been changed:
- The shield in the crest of Ochla is divided by two wavy lines into three sections horizontally (sections' proportions: 2/5 - 1/5 - 2/5).
- The azure wavy section symbolizes a river. It is one of the shield's sections and not the emblem's element. (If this were an element of an emblem, then the rule of tincture would not be respected between the river symbol and the shield's section. If the azure shield's section results from the division of the shield, then the rule of tincture is respected).
- The shield changed shape to a Spanish type shield, that's what it is currently the dominant and preferred shield style in Polish local government heraldry.
- The appearance of the knight was changed because in the 2005 version he was in fact too similar to the knight from the crest of the city of Sulechów. Now the knight has the clothes and weapons that were used by the knights in Silesia in the second half of the 13th century, that is exactly when the town of Ochla was founded.
- An eagle on a knight's shield with a half-moon band with a cross is modeled on the eagle's tombstone of Prince of Głogów Henry IV the Faithful. He was the son of most likely the first owner of the village of Ochla, Prince Henry III of Głogów (around 1251/60 - 1309).

Paweł Szymon Towpik, 5 December 2021

Detail of crest

image by Paweł Szymon Towpik, 5 December 2021

2005 Proposal

image by Jarig Bakker, 4 May 2008
proposed Feb 2005; design: Pawel Szymon Towpik

Here is the proposal (projekt) of the Arms and flag of Ochla (Ochelhermsdorf till 1945) in Zielona Gora commune (urban), Zielona Gora County, Lubuskie Voivodship. as presented on this webpage.
The author of the proposal is Pawel Szymon Towpik and he's done his work in February 2005.
According to him the Arms are roughly as follows:
The heraldic shield is Gothic.
1. The color green stands for the forests surrounding Ochla, sprouting fields and meadows, and for the inhabitants of the village, as in the heraldic terms the green represents hope, justice, joy and health, the characteristics common to all the people in the village.
2.The color blue stands for the River Slaska Ochla (Ochle, in German) and also for the River Jasiolda in the former Pruzany County (now in Belarus) from where the majority of the present-day inhabitants of Ochla originated.
Blue, heraldically, is also a symbol of beauty, human goodness and independence.
3.Three, gold, heraldic stones, representing the three epochs in the history of the village: pre-historic one, German (from the end of XIIIth Century to February 14, 1945) and the present one - Polish.
It also symbolizes three most important landmarks of the village: the XIIIth Century church, the palatial mansion of 1687 and the palace of 1792.
Also the three major cataclysms which had fallen on the village like stones: the Thirty Years War's events of 1626 and 1631 and the Northern War of 1706.
The village always managed to rise again after those catastrophes.
4. The knight in the silver armor holding an axe and a shield with the arms of the Silesian Piasts. This is to represent the legendary first settler, named Herman and all the other owners of the village, many distinguished names from the German history, including Count Fritz von Hohenau (Hohenzollern), the last owner of Ochla who was shot down and died over France in 1918 while serving in the famous Richthoffen's Red Baron squadron.
Also, the brave settlers of 1945 who were repatriated from the Soviet annexed eastern part of Poland.
The proposed flag is of three equal bands of green, yellow and blue, where green stands for the forested northern part of the village, yellow for the agricultural southern part and blue for the River Slaska Ochla encircling the village from the South.
To differentiate the flag from many similar ones, the white panel is added at the hoist (white is representing silver armor of the knight from the Coat of Arms) with the arms in its center.
Note that the knight is identical to the one of Sulechów commune.
Chrystian Kretowicz, 29 Apr 2008

Ochla village Coat of Arms

image by Jarig Bakker, 4 May 2008
proposed Feb 2005; design: Pawel Szymon Towpik