Last modified: 2006-02-11 by dov gutterman
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Republic of Croatia is divided in 21 counties called zupanija
(sg., read zhupaniya). They are administrative units, and slowly
aquiring coats of arms and flags. But historical parts of Croatia
do have coats of arms (those in the crown of the coat of
Croatia). Now they are not officially used by any unit. Some are,
however, often seen, especially the one of Istria (goat) and
Dalmatia (three heads), used by political parties as shields on a
white flag. There are many towns' coats and flags that are used.
Since 1 January 1997, there are 20 counties, plus City of Zagreb
with special status within Zagreb County.
Željko Heimer
The Croatian "Law on local self-government and administration" on the web server of the Croatian Parliament. Article 9 says:
Law of the 29 December 1992.
Source: Parliament of
Croatia.
Pascal Vagnat, 9 September 1996
The general pattern of the Croatan county flags:
They all follow this simple rule - a simple geometric pattern
with the coat of arms in it . Three of the counties chose their
simple geometric pattern as pure field of one colour, but this is
quite regular, IMHO. Two counties have vertical bicolours, one of
them off- centered. Four have horizontal bicolours, and two have
five-striped horizontal bicolours. One has quartered fields, and
one have two tins stripes on top (quite unusual, even original!).
Three have two stripes in the field, one horizontal, one diagonal
and one Israeli style.
Suprisingly, there are no inscriptions, except in one case, in
which inscription is part of the coa. Also in one case, there is
writing, but not in regular flag, but only for special occasions.
Sevetal counties changed flags, soon after their adoption by the
County, when they were not confirmed by the body of the Ministry
of Administration. After minor changes, new improved flags were
adopted. I am aware of two such cases (regarding counties, more
regarding cities and communities) but probably there were more.
Željko Heimer, 28 June 1998
Browsing the official gazzete for flag related material, I
found that recently there were issued regulations for local flags
and Coat of Arms in Croatia. The most important thing in it, for
us, is the part regulating the design of flags - two- coloured
(not bi-colours!) for counties, and one-colored for cities and
communities, in both cases with CoA in the middle or in hoist.
This only confirms the rule that I have found (obviously, not
only me collecting them).
Here is the exctract from the regulations, published in official
gazette NN, 94/1998, 10-JUL-1998. [my comments in brackets]
Ministarstvo uprave Pravilnik o postupku davanja odobrenja grba i
zastave jedinici lokalne samouprave
Ministry of Administration - Regulation on the procedure for
confirmation of the coat of arms and the flag of a unit of local
self-government
Art. 2.
The coat of arms [CoA] of the unit of local self-government
[county, city and community] should be made according to the
rules of heraldry. A coat of arms consists of a shield and the
contents within it. The CoA of a unit of local self-government
can not contain the state coat of arms or a part of it. A unit of
local self-government, as a rule, takes its historical coat of
arms with the shield and its contents.
Art. 3.
In making of the flag heraldic colours are used: white, blue,
yellow, red and green. [what about black?!] A county uses for the
making of the flag, as a rule, two colours, and a city and a
community use, as a rule, one colour. On the flag of a county
there is the CoA of the county, on the flag of a city there is
the CoA of the city, and on the flag of a community there is the
CoA of the community. The CoA is in the middle of the flag or in
hoist position. The ratio of a flag should be 1:2.
Art. 4.
A unit of local self-government lays request for confirmation of
the CoA and the flag to the Ministry of Administration.
៞ljko Heimer ,15 August 1998
The regulations on adoption of the flags for counties, cities
and municipalities prescribe that they have to be of a field of
one colour (or two-coloured in case of the counties) in anyof the
heraldical colours: red, blue, green, yellow and white. (that is,
the five colours are named). Notably, the black is not listed.
One can speculate for the reason, one of the obvious might be the
association of the black with mourning, as Antonio noted.
However, there might be other reasons - black flags have
"association" of anarchy, or in these regions they are
connected with extreme right movements from the World War II.
(cf. Chetnik flag, but also Ustashas used black often, if not so
on flags). There might be other theories, also, but the fact
remains - black is banned from the local Croatian flags.
Željko Heimer, 4 June 2000