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Sankt Margarethen im Burgenland (Burgenland, Austria)

image by Martin Karner

♦ photo

Hungarian: Szentmargitbánya, Szentmargit, Margita; Croatian: Margareta
Official colours: red and green

See also:

Coat of Arms

(source)

Gules on a mount Vert a slain dragon Or surmounted by Saint Margaret statant of the Same.
Christopher Southworth, 21 October 2026

The arms show Margaret of Antioch. According tradition the teenage Margaret is said to have been tortured and beheaded when she refused to renounce Christianity and give her virginity to a Roman official in the 4th century. Her cult spread widely, particularly during the Middle Ages. She is often depicted with Satan or a dragon, from whose belly, according to legend, she emerged unscathed after it had swallowed her.

On 19 August 1989, at what is now the border crossing between Sankt Margarethen and Sopronkőhida (Hungary), several hundred East German citizens managed to escape across the then-sealed border to the West on the fringes of the "Pan-European Picnic". This event is now widely regarded as a turning point in the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Municipal website: https://st-margarethen.at (history, German)

Martin Karner, 21 October 2026