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Keywords: virovitica-podravina county |
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![[County flag]](../images/h/hr-vi.gif)
image by Željko Heimer, 2 April 2014
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the Virovitica-Podravina County is situated in the north-western part of Slavonia, south of river Drava. Virovitica was the seat of an ancient County from the Middle Ages, but the region was occupied by the Turks for almost 200 years. It was liberated in the early 18th century - 21 July 1718 is counted as the Liberation Day of Slavonia. The re-established County of Virovitica (German: Virovititz; Hungarian: Veröce) covered a much larger region along Drava than today, reaching the Danube on the eastern end and including the towns of Đakovo and Osijek.
Željko Heimer, 20 August 2000
The symbols of the Virovitica-Podravina County are prescribed by Decision Odluka o izmjenama Odluke o grbu i zastavi Županije Virovitičko-podravske, adopted on 29 August 1996 by the County Assembly and published on 30 August 1996 in the County official gazette Službeni glasnik Županije virovitičko-podravske, No. 5. Decision Odluka o uporabi grba i zastave Virovitičko-podravske županije, published on 28 March 2003 in Službeni glasnik Virovitičko-podravske županije, No. 1, regulates the use of the coat of arms and the flag. This was amended by Decision Odluka o izmjenama Odluke o uporabi grba i zastave Virovitičko-podravske županije, adopted on 24 August 2009 and published on 25 August 2009 in Službeni glasnik Virovitičko-podravske županije, No. 8 (text).
The symbols are described in the County Statutes Statut Virovitičko-podravske županije, adopted on 21 December 2001 and published on 22 December 2001 in Službeni glasnik Virovitičko-podravske županije, No. 8. Amendment Izmjene i dopune Statuta Virovitičko-podravske županije, adopted on 2 July 2009 and published on 3 July 2009 in Službeni glasnik Virovitičko-podravske županije, No. 6 (text), has Article 4 completed with "the County Mayor is to grant use of the coat of arms and the flag to legal persons in promotion of the interest of the County". This is repeated in the consolidated County Statutes Statut Virovitičko-podravske županije (pročišćeni tekst), adopted on 17 May 2010 and published on 18 May 2010 in Službeni glasnik Virovitičko-podravske županije, No. 3 (text).
The symbols were approved on 12 July 1996 by the Ministry of Administration.
The flag is prescribed in the Decision as "in proportions 1:2, blue-white-blue with a yellow/golden bordered County's coat of arms in the middle."
A document attached to the Ministry's approval (probably not an original part of it) contains the technical specifications for the symbols, with line drawings of the flag and coat of arms and hatched drawings with
colours indicated in RAL Color System.
The blue shade of the flag is prescribed as RAL 5015, which is a
sky blue shade. The red field is RAL 3020, a somewhat darker shade of
red, named Traffic red in the RAL website. The yellow of the
charges is RAL 1032 (Broom yellow) while the yellow of the shield
outline is named "light yellow" without RAL number indicated. The bars are
indicated as "silver (white)" without RAL number, while the white of the
flag stripe is not indicated at all (left unhatched). The coat of arms in
these hatched darwings slightly differs from the one in the line
drawings, having the bottom point curved slightly outwards, unlike the
line drawing having straight lines forming the bottom vertex. However, it seems that the coat of arms based on the line drawings is the one in use.
The flag is shown as a regular horizontally divided flag in proportions 1:2, with the coat of arms set centrally, so that its height (together with the outline) is 2/3 of the flag's hoist.
Željko Heimer, 2 April 2014
![[County coat of arms]](../images/h/hr)vi.gif)
image by Željko Heimer, 2 April 2014
The coat of arms of the Virovitica-Podravina County is prescribed in the aforementioned Decision as follows: "On a red shield between two white/silver bars a running marten, in chief a yellow/golden six-pointed star, in base a yellow/golden anchor."
The coat of arms now differs from the old pattern only in the colours of the field between the two rivers and of the anchor.
In the aforementioned technical specifications, the line drawing construction gives the coat of arms with X as its length and Y = 1.3X as it height. Other dimensions are indicated as fractions of the two. So from the shield top to the bottom of the top bar is Y/3.1,
as much as it is from the bottom of the bottom bar to the shield
bottom (leaving the central part to be Y/2.8). Each bar is X/10 in height.
The height of the regular six-pointed star is X/5 (presumably in the
centre of the top field). The height of the marten is indicated also
as X/5, but it covers only from the top to about the end of the front
left paw (and this dimension is not vertically centered in the
central field). The width of the animal is X/2 + X/5 (0.7X). The arches of the shield are designed with a radius of R = X/4, centered X/20 from the bottom of the bottom bar. The bottom edges of the shield are thus tangent to these circles from the midpoint of the shield bottom. The dimensions of the anchor are given slanted as the object, so X/3.8 in width and X/2.1 in height, apparently, following the angle of the bottom edges of the shield.
It is indicated that when used in flags, the shield is outlined with the edge of X/30 in width.
Željko Heimer, 2 April 2014
![[Flag]](../images/h/hr_vi.gif)
image by Željko Heimer, 25 August 2016
The table flag (photo) of the county is a vertical version of the official flag, with the coat of arms rotated accordingly.
Željko Heimer & Ivan Grbac, 25 August 2016
![[County former flag]](../images/h/hr-vi-94.gif)
![[County former flag]](../images/h/hr)vi-94.gif)
images by Željko Heimer, 19 August 2016
The first modern symbols of the Virovitica-Podravina County were prescribed by Decision Odluka o grbu i zastavi Županije Virovitičko-podravske, adopted on 27 May 1994 and published on 28 May 1994 in Službeni glasnik Županije virovitičko-podravske, No. 3.
Article 12 prescribes the flag as follows:
The flag of the County is rectangular and blue. The ratio of the width to the length of the flag are 2:3. In the middle of the flag there is the coat of arms of the County. The height of the flag is equal to the sum of the height and the width of the coat of arms.
Article 10 prescribes the coat of arms as follows:
The coat of arms of the County is rectangular with the lower side rounded-off with a point in the middle. It is divided in four horizontal fields ordered red, white, green and red. The first two fields are bar-shaped, while the other two are of irregular shape. In the upper red field there is in the middle a six-pointed white star in size 1/5 of the width of the coat of arms, while in the green field there is a black marten running towards the left side of the coat of arms. The ratio of the red and green field in respect to the coat of arms height is 1:3, while the white field is 1/10 of the coat of arms' width. The coat of arms, the fields and the star are outlined in black.
The proposals were presented by Dr. Balta "one of the authors", who based them on the historical symbols. The new arms "shall retain the historical three fields". The white bar stands for river Drava in the north; the bottom field is embowed, representing the southern mountains -
Papuk and Bilogora. The County Mgistrate decided to forward the proposal to
the County Assembly for adoption.
[Prijedlog županijskog znamenja, Virovitički list, 6 May 1994]
The same blue flag with the historical coat of arms is claimed to be preserved in the Slavonia Museum in Osijek, the capital of the historical Virovitica County.
[Za Dan državnosti novo znakovlje, Virovitički list, 20 May 1994]
The County Magistrate proposed to change of the symbols, to conform
with the "newly prescribed" State rules, proposing the current design.
[Izmjene županijskog znakovlja, Virovitički list, 23 August 1996]
Željko Heimer & Ivan Grbac, 19 August 2016
Coat of arms of Virovitica County, 1746
![[Former County arms]](../images/h/hr)ah-vi.gif)
Coat of arms of the Virovitica County, 1746 - Image by Željko Heimer, 20 August 2000
The coat of arms of the Virovitica County was granted on 16 May 1746 by Maria Theresa and validated by the Imperial and Royal Office in Vienna. The coat of arms is: "Gules, on a fess vert bordered with two bars argent a marten passant proper, in chief a mullet [of six] or and in base an anchor in bend of the third. Crowned with a Royal crown. Supporters, dexter an eagle regardant sable beaked and membered or langued gules, sinister a lion regardant or, langued gules. Compartment, a board argent." The coat of arms combines the medieval arms of the Kingdom of Slavonia and the arms of family Patačić de Zajezda. Ljudevit Patačić was installed in 1745 as the County superior officer (supremus commes or veliki župan).
Željko Heimer, 20 August 2000
Flag of the Virovitica County, 1790
![[Former County flag]](../images/h/hr-ah-vi.gif)
Flag of the Virovitica County, 1790 - Image by Željko Heimer, 20 August 2000
The County was briefly disbanded in 1785, but re-established in 1790. From that year is preserved a flag in the Croatian History Museum. The flag is a red, vertically hoisted banner with proportions c. 3:1. In the middle of the field is the shield of the coat of arms, crowned, and with inscriptions in golden letters in arch, above "PRO: DEO: REGE: ET: LEGE" (For God, King and Law) and below "MDCCLXXXX" (1790, the year of the reestablishment of the County and of production of the flag).
The administrative reorganization in 1886 had little effect on the Virovitica County and the coat of arms was continued to be used. There is no evidence if the flag (at that time almost 100 years old) continued to be used, or if there was any used at all. With the desintegration of Austria-Hungary after the First World War, the county system was disbanded, and the symbols, of course, went into disuse.
Željko Heimer, 20 August 2000
Cavalry standard of the Virovitica County, 1790
![[Cavalry flag]](../images/h/hr^vicav.jpg)
Cavalry standard of the Virovitica County, 1790 - Image by courtesy of Jelena Borošak-Marijanović, Croatian History Museum (website)
Light brown silk, braids, wood, brass, embroidery. 58 x 97 cm, length of staff 199 cm.
A cavalry standard made of double silk, edged with fringes. The centre of the flag field on both sides holds the embroidered coat of arms of the Virovitica County. Above the coat of arms the embroidered motto reads "PRO: DEO: REGE: ET: LEGE" (For God, King and Law), and below the coat of arms the year "MDCCLXXXX" (1790). The flagstaff, similar to a tournament lance, ends with a heart-shaped finial.
Source: Jelena Borošak-Marijanović, Zastave kroz stoljeca [bor96]
