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Lachen commune (Schwyz canton, Switzerland)

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Lachen

image by Pascal Gross

Gules a serpent Or wrapped around a cross Tau Argent.
Christopher Southworth

From the communal website: "The coat of arms of the municipality of Lachen shows a snake hanging from a Tau or Antonius cross. The bronze serpent, which used to be worshiped in a cult, also symbolizes, among other things, the exaltation of Christ on the cross to protect mankind from eternal death. The coat of arms should therefore have a reference to the cross of Christ, to which a chapel and later today's parish church were dedicated as early as 1100. The exact reasons for the creation and for the choice of this coat of arms are no longer known today. The oldest Lachner coat of arms is in the tabernacle of the main altar of the Heilig-Kreuzkirche, the parish church. [...]
The colours of the Lachner coat of arms are given very differently. We find very realistic colours in the town hall; the stem of the cross is brown, the snake is iridescent green and the ground is blue. In today's official municipal coat of arms, the trunk of the cross is white, the snake is yellow and the background is red." (source)