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Vukovar (Vukovar-Srijem, Croatia)

Grad Vukovar

image by Željko Heimer

Overview
Vertical Flag
Coat of Arms
Flags at Vukovar City Museum

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Collection of Croatian Flags at FAME.

Overview

There are local elections in Croatia this Sunday, and this was a chance to see on TV several local flags. One that deserves to be considered it the flag of Vukovar - the city in east of Croatia that bacame the symbol of Croatian stouggle against aggression.
The flag is a horizontal triband of blue-white-blue, where the shade of blue is very light, similar to what is usually represented on Argentinian flags (celestial blue). In the middle, as it is usual for Croatian local flags, there is the coat of arms of Vukovar - red with white castle under the image of Mary (?). Over all it is an escutcheon of irregular shape blue with golden lion (?) holding and axe.
Of course, the flag is not used in Vukovar itself at the moment, the city being under protection of the UN, but the results of these elections should change this as one of the main prerogatives of the reintegration of Eastern Slavonia and Baranya in Croatia. The flag that could be seen in Vukovar these days is the UN flag, and as it was reported in TV news, the Serb tricolours are hoisted on several buildings of the local Serb government.
Željko Heimer, 13 April 1997

I saw yesterday the TV-news on Arte (french-german network) with a short program about the Croatian elections and the situation of Eastern Slavonia. In a Croatian house were flying the Croatian national flag and a Vukovarian flag slightly different from the one posted by Željko. The city shield was on a plain sky blue field, omitting the white band of Željko's picture.
Ivan Sache, 16 April 1997

I haven't seen that one, but I'll make a note on my pages that this one is also used. I guess that this is either an unofficial flag or some older variant. I am inclined to believe that the striped version is official since I saw in on the election posts.
Of course, more details would be known only when the normal government would be established there.
By the way, I have seen today another photo from the elections in the area around Vukovar, with a great Serb flag hoisted on the wall behind the electors, having the light blue shield with the white eagle etc.
Željko Heimer, 17 April 1997

The coat of arms of Vukovar is modernized version of the previous arms, picturing a maiden standing at the city gates holding a blue shield with golden wolf. The wolf is canting the city name (Croatian vuk = wolf). The flag is triband of blue-white-blue. In mid1990's the flag without the white stripe was also occasionally used.
Željko Heimer

I managed to get a copy of an article on the flags in the Vukovar-Srijem County [sal95]. Regarding the city of Vukovar, here is the document adopting the symbols on 29.11.1993: "Odluka o grbu i zastavi grada Vukovara, te nacinu i uvjetima njihove uporabe i zaštite", 29. studenog 1993, Službeni vjesnik [Vukovarsko-srijemske županije], 31. ožujka 1994.
However, the decision describes the coat of arms to have green base. The images attached to the text of the article show the shield as brownish and the escutcheon as red, however author notes that these illustrations are not the best. However, the "greenless" coat of arms seems to be in actual use. Possibly after 1993 an other decsion was made at some point (or even more then one). Anyway, the article gives the flag as vertical version.
Željko Heimer, 16 January 2005

Vertical Flag

image by Željko Heimer, 16 January 2005

Coat of Arms

image by Željko Heimer

Flags at Vukovar City Museum

There are beautiful photos of excellent flags at the Vukovar city museum. Among others there is the historical flag of the Vukovar County. The date on the flag is inscribed 1797. The county was established in 1747 and was briefly abolished (as all other couties) in 1785 to be re-established in 1790. The flag might have been made then to celebrate 50 years of the county or (as was the case in the Požega County in 1797) as the flag of the volunteer unit in the insurrection against Napoleon. I contacted the museum to try to find out more about it. Other flags shown on the page (click on each to get a large nice photo!) are the flags of firebrigade of 1875, of the general manufacturers' guild of 1890 and a flag of a cultural society probably from the same period - a beautiful and intricate Croatian national flag, unfortunately now in very bad shape, but its original beauty is still visible.
Željko Heimer, 14 January 2006