Coat of arms of Vojvodina
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Coat of arms of Vojvodina |
The Parliament of the Autonomous Province of
Vojvodina (located in northern
Serbia) adopted the coat of arms of the province on 28 June
2002. Coat of arms is based on the historical coat of arms of the
Serbian Vojvodina from the flag of
Zemun National Guard from
1848.
The three fields of the coat of arms of Vojvodina bear the coats of arms of 3 historic regions of Vojvodina, granted in the 18th century:
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Bačka. The coat of arms of Bačka was granted by
Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor (1657-1705) in 1699. It was later (1861) retained for the County of
Bačka-Bodrog. In blue field on a green grass standing
Saint Paul wearing blue shirt and red toga with golden nimbus holding in dexter a downpointed silver sword with golden hilt and in sinister a black book (Bible). The Bačka-Bodrog county was divided between
Yugoslavia and
Hungary after the
First World War. The northern part of it was later incorporated into
Bács-Kiskun county of Hungary, that also uses the coat of arms with
St. Peter in its dexter half.
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Banat. The golden lion rampant on red holding a sabre was the coat of arms of the
Tamiš Banat (Serbian: Tamiški Banat). It was an
Austrian crown land, its governor responding directly to the Emperor, and existed from 1718, when the area was taken over from the Ottoman Empire, to 1779, when it was abolished. The coat of arms of the Tamiš Banat is derived from the oldest arms of the
Habsburg family, which were: Or a lion rampant gules armed langued and crowned azure. The arms denote the land as the Emperor's personal possession (hence the lion, only without the crown, and the colours, or and gules reversed and azure excluded, or in its place), which is situated at the border with the Ottoman Empire (hence the sabre in lion's paw). The coat of arms is nowadays used only in the part of Banat in
Vojvodina. The coat of arms of the part of Banat in
Romania is partly based on it, too: gules over waves azure a bridge with two arched openings or wherefrom issuing a demi-lion or holding a sabre in its right forepaw. Half of the lion also appears on the arms of
Timis county in Romania.
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Srem. The third coat of arms is that of Srem, granted in 1747 by Empress
Maria Theresa of Austria. The modern Croatian county of
Vukovar-Srijem uses the same coat of arms. The three white stripes on blue, representing the three rivers of Srem:
Bosut,
Sava and
Danube. The deer that is resting on the ground is close to the poplar (topola) green tree. The tree changed though the history. In the original grant the tree was a cypress tree. The modern
Croatian design preferred it to make it an oak tree, which is abundant in the region and is a kind of a national symbol. Similarly, poplar is connected to
Serbia (the royal family stems from a place named
Topola).
The historical coat of arms of
Serbian Vojvodina was adopted in 1848. In its central part is a
Serbian cross, with four
Cyrillic letters "S", reflecting the Serbian national motto "
Only Unity Saves the Serbs" (Samo sloga Srbina spasava).
On the left and right side are a small coats of arms of the four historical regions of Serbian Vojvodina:
Srem (upper left),
Banat (upper right),
Bačka (bottom left), and
Baranja (bottom right).
On the top is a
Crown of Saint Stephen. The crown was placed on the coat of arms because the first intention of
Serbs was to create
Serbian Vojvodina, which would be autonomous region within the
Kingdom of Hungary, but since the war between
Serbs and
Hungarians started, the intention was changed into one that Serbian Vojvodina should be completelly separated from the Kingdom of Hungary and directly subordinated to
Vienna.
