Last modified: 2003-09-20 by dov gutterman
Keywords: dubrovnik | ragusa | croatia | st.blasius | libertas |
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St. Blasius Flag
by Zeljko Heimer
Libertas Flag
by Zeljko Heimer
See also:
Other Sites:
St. Blasius, parton of the city, the barry arms and motto
LIBERTAS are ancient symbols of Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik).
St. Blasius Flag - reintroduced: 1990's, based on primary flag of
the Republic of Ragusa. There is also
the Libertas Flag, based on secondary flag of the Republic of Ragusa.
Zeljko Heimer
I located what looks like an reproduction of Ragusa
historical flag at news
dubrovnik site.
Dov Gutterman, 26 August 1999
That is the old Ragusa flag, to be found on the flagchart in
Smith's FTAAATW [smi75b] , p.
205 (c. 1750) and on Danckerts' flag chart [dan05]
(c. 1710). I wonder whether this flag is a reconstruction of one
of those flag charts.
Jarig Bakker, 26 August 1999
This is indeed the flag of Ragusa (or Dubrovnik, as the local
name is). The flag situation in the longlived Republic was such
that two flags were used - the one with LIBERTAS shield, in many
variations, was considered a kind of what we would call civil
flag (and ensign - the flags were mostly used at sea in that
time), and the on with picture of St. Blasius, the patron of the
city was more ceremonial and "state" flag. Also the
flag with the CoA was used, as some sources say, as they symbol
of officials on vessels. Anyway, not going into details here
(since I do not have references by hand), I can only say that
after WW II city of Dubrovnik reatined only the Libertas flag (as
the one with saint was not appropriate in socialist environment,
of course) and that was usually red with yellow inscriprion, not
unusually in three lines LI/BER/TAS (this design was reported
before also). The modern city, after 1990, adopted the flag with
St. Blasius as the official city flag, and it is used as such.
However, in ceratin occasions, as it is the one mentioned on the
site - the Dubrovnik summer festival (of theatre), the flag of
liberty is used on opening ceremony and thruout of the festival
it is hoisted on the city main square. It might be mentioned
also, that as tradition goes, there is no definite design for
libertas flag, and even if the same flag is used as the official
flag on the main flag-pole (the one on photo), it is quite usual
that each year somewhat different pattern is used as the flag of
the festival.
Zeljko Heimer, 28 august 1999