Last modified: 2005-02-19 by dov gutterman
Keywords: citluk | herzegovina-nertava |
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The community of Citluk (C<itluk) is in the
Hercegovina-Neretva Canton (Canton nr. 7), just south of Mostar.
It is world reknown as the site of the Marian pilgrimage
Medjugorje, that is situated in the south of the community. The
coat of arms and the flag are shown and described on the
community web site at <www.citluk.ba>.
The coat of arms is in a 14th century gothic shieldshape: per
fess azure a Calvary cross argent between two branches of madder
vert and gules two bars argent.
The Calvary cross such as shown in the coat of arms is erected on
a mountain near Medugorje. The madder plant (Rubia Tinetorum)
called in Croatian broc is canting for the ancient name
of Citluk, that is today preserved as the name of the paltteau on
which the community is situated - Brotnjo. The plant growing
abundantly there was an important medieval texitle dye. The red
and white stripes are reminiscent to the Croatian chequy of gules
and argent.
The flag is golden yellow with the coat of arms in the middle.
Ratio 1:2. I estimate the adoption date to around 2002.
Information located by Pascal Gross.
Željko Heimer, 16 May 2004
The correct spelling of the name of the plant should be Rubia
trinctorum, literally dyers' madder. Rubia is the
ancient name of the plant, from ruber, rouge. The
flowers of the madder are indeed yellowish, but the dye was made
with the roots of the plants. In the past, the root of the madder
was called alizari, a Spanish word derived from the
Arabic word al asarah, juice, sap. The dye extracted
from the root is called alizarin.
In France, the madder, called garance, was used to dye
the trousers of the soldiers of the line infantry regiments,
which make them very visible and cause great loss during the
First World War. The economist Alfred Sauvy made a famous
parallel between France, which state-protected madder cultivation
and Germany, where Badische Anilin developed the industry of
synthetic dyes. Madder cultivation was of course ruined in
France.
Garance is the main character of the wonderful movie
"Les Enfants du Paradis", played by Arletty, who says
with her working-calss Paris accent: "Je m'appelle Garance.
C'est le nom du fleur" ["I am Garance. This is the name
of a flower").
Other plants of the family Rubiacae are the coffee tree, the
gardenia and the quinquina.
Ivan Sache, 18 May 2004
The latter shows in the Coat of Arms, and thus on the state
flag, of Peru.
Anto'nio Martins, 19 May 2004
The flag and the Coat of Arms can be seen at the bottom of
<www.tel.net.ba/brotnju.htm>.
Brotnjo is the name of the region where the community of Citluk
is situated.
Željko Heimer, 6 January 2005