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Vrhnika (Municipality, Slovenia)

Flag of Vrhnika, left, as used, right, as prescribed - Images by Željko Heimer, 15 March 2013

Presentation of Vrhnika
Flag of Vrhnika
Coat of arms of Vrhnika
Former flag and emblem of Vrhnika
Erroneous report of flag and coat of arms of Vrhnika

See also:

Presentation of Vrhnika

The municipality of Vrhnika (8,454 inhabitants in 2012) had the community status before the 1990s.

Željko Heimer, 10 April 2000

Flag of Vrhnika

The coat of arms and flag of Vrhnika are prescribed by Decision Odlok o grbu in zastavi občine Vrhnika, adopted 10 April 1992, and published in the official Slovene gazette Uradni list Republike Slovenije, 24/1992, on 22 May 1992, with effect on 29 May 1992.
A new Decision on the symbols, Odlok o grbu in zastavi Občine Vrhnika, was adopted on 14 February 2002, and published in the official gazette of Vrhnika Naž časopis.
There is no significant change in the Decision, although thoroughly reworded, and the descriptions of the flag and the coat of arms remained word for word the same. Beside the three graphically different variants of the coat of arms prescribed in the 1992 Decision (for print on textile, for print on paper and for license plates), a fourth variation was added in the wording: the electronic format.

The flag is for vertical hoisting, in proportions 1:2, blue with clay coloured fly (1/32 of the longer side) and the coat of arms in the upper part in a clay coloured rectangle. The top line of the coat of arms matches the line of 1/4th of the longer side. The details and size of the coat of arms and the size of the rectangle are not explicitly stated.

While the 1992 and 2002 Decisions do not differ in the written description of the flag, the 1992 Decision includes a sketchy diagram of the flag, showing the coat of arms in the rectange smaller than it is now used. Presumably, the change was made formally in 2002, even if the current design may have been in use so even before that.

Željko Heimer, 15 March 2013

Coat of arms of Vrhnika

Coat of arms of Vhrnika - Images by Željko Heimer, 15 March 2013; from left to right:
- for printing on textile;
- for printing on paper;
- for car license plates;
- for car license plates (variant, Stanič & Jakopič [j2s05])

The municipality of Vrhnika uses its traditional coat of arms that probably originates from the coat of arms of Illyria, that is the Illyrian Provinces of the Napoleonic era.
The modern graphical layout adds wavy lines similar to those on the coat of arms of the Republic of Slovenia. Except this main shape of the coat of arms ("for print on textile") the Decision prescribes two other acceptable designs, "for print on paper" (semicircular shield without the white border on top) and "for license plates" (standard shape for license plates, also without the white border on top). Those two are even more related to the coat of arms of Slovenia just because of the unusual "topless" bordering.
The Decision prescribes colours in HKS and only for clay colour; (oker) in both HKS and Pantone:
- Blue: HKS 44 K
- Clay: HKS 68K / Pantone 87I-A
The Decision also provides a construction sheet for the coat of arms, especially detailed in construction details of the wavy lines.

The most recent Municipal Statutes Statut Občine Vrhnika, adopted on 18 November 1999 and published in the official Slovene gazette Uradni list Republike Slovenije, 99/1999, describe the coat of arms as portraying "Jaso's sailboat Argo on the wavy of Ljubljanica river".

Željko Heimer, 20 October 2002

Former flag and emblem of Vrhnika

Former flag and emblem of Vrhnika - Images by Željko Heimer, 29 September 2004

According to Zalokar [zal90], Vrhnika used before 1992 a dark blue flag with the former municipal emblem. This was indeed the same historical coat of arms, but in a different artwork - within a baroque cartouche, with a blue outlining on a white bakckground.

Željko Heimer, 29 September 2004

Erroneous report of the flag and coat of arms of Vrhnika

Banderas municipales de Eslovenia [drn96i], published in Banderas [ban] #58 (March 1996), even if it refers to the same source as above, gives wrong images. The coat of arms shown there is missing the clay coloured outline (in shape prescribed for license plates), while the flag there uses the same coat of arms, which is wrong in the first place, and it rotates it so that the flag seems appropriate for horizontal hoisting - something that is not prescribed so either.

Željko Heimer, 10 April 2000