![[Flag of Vodnjan]](../images/h/hr-vodnj.gif)
by Zeljko Heimer
Last modified: 2004-03-06 by dov gutterman
Keywords: istria | vodnjan | croatia | dignano |
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by Zeljko Heimer
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Yellow flag with coat of arms - white shield with red cross,
bordered black. I am not quite sure if black lines are part of
the design, but they were so prominent on the flag I saw that I
added them in my image, too. Althought the flag maybe doesn't
look special as drawn, I can tell you it is very good sight to
see it flying. It make good contrast with stone houses and green
mediterrainean vegetation. Vodnjan is community in southern
central Istria, withous sea access (and therfore not so
turistically exponated). However, it was one rather important
place, before port of Pula was heavily build by Austria-Hungary.
As it is usual in Istrian places with considerable amount of
Italian population, in Vodnjan (or Dignano in Italian) is
displayied Italian flag too. The proper arrangement is in the
middle the Croatian flag, to observers left the community flag
and to observers right Italian flag.
Zeljko Heimer, 2 August 1997
The community of Vodnjan (Dignano) has Argent a cross Gules,
coat of arms in shape very similar to the one of Pula. On flag it is outlined in black on
yellow field. The coat of arms of Vodnjan is not unlike several
other Istrian cities and towns. The flag is yellow with the coat
of arms in the middle.
Zeljko Heimer, 1 March 1999
In 2003 Vodnjan status was rised from a community to a city.
Also, as recently the county flag was adopted, in the
proper display order of flags in Vodnjan is added the county flag
to the observer's right, so the left to right order is: Croatian,
Vodnjan, Italian, Istria; as could be seen on the photo fo the
city hall at <www.vodnjan.hr>.
The ceremonial flag is shown on a photo in an article in
"Nacional" political magazine issued on 14.07.1999. The
flag is partly obscured by the mayor and the vice-mayor, so the
text is not entirely legible, nor all the tails are entirely
visible, but I believe that my reconstruction can't be that much
wrong.
The ceremonial flag is a yellow gonfalon with the coat of arms in
the middle, topped with a mural crown and surrounded with an
olive and an oak branch tied with a light blue ribbon. The name
of the community is inscribed in two arched lines below in
Croatian and Italian: "OPCINA VODNJAN/COMUNE DI
DIGNANO". Probably when the community was was granted a city
status the inscription was to be corrected (but weather this was
actually performed is not known). Possibly the time was yet too
short for that...
Zeljko Heimer, 28 Febuary 2004
Dignano is still the Italian name of the city, since the city
is bilingual, it uses Croatian and Italian languages as equal.
The Croatian name has a distinct clearly recognizable root 'voda'
meaning water, i.e. presumably the city had good acess to water
fo some kind. I believe that Dignano is "italization"
of the name usig "sounds-like" principle, which is used
very much in Istria otherwise. Weather the Italian name has some
meaning, I could not say, also I am unaware which of the two is
older.
At <www.vodnjan.hr>
there is a story on the name that I translate with some
shortening: "The Ancient Romans defeated Histrians and
setteled here in 2nd century BC. About this time the territory of
Vodnjan was given for keeping to some Attinivs, so the place was
known soon as VICUS ATTINIANUM, that gave probably ADIGNANI and
latter DIGNANO. The local Croatian folk provided the Croatian
transcription with expressions of direction 'in Dignano'... va
Dinjane, va Vodnjane, and finally Vodnjan."
The same page include an earlier photo of the city hall with
three flags only, observer's left to right: Vodnanj, Croatian,
Italian.
Zeljko Heimer, 29 Febuary 2004
by Zeljko Heimer, 28 Febuary 2004
pn-vo.gif)
by Zeljko Heimer