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Vinkovci (Town, Vukovar-Srijem County, Croatia)

Flag of Vinkovci, two versions - Images by Željko Heimer, 16 January 2003

Presentation of Vinkovci
Flag of Vinkovci
Coat of arms of Vinkovci

See also:

Presentation of Vinkovci

Vinkovci was the temporary capital of the County, when Vukovar was occupied (1990-1995).

Željko Heimer, 16 January 2005

Flag of Vinkovci

The symbols of Vinkovci are prescribed by Decision Odluka o grbu i zastavi grada Vinkovaca, adopted on 19 July 1993 by the Town Assembly and published on 11 October 1993 in the County official gazette Službeni vjesnik Županije Vukovarsko-srijemske, No. 4.
The coat of arms was already described in Article 6 of the Decision adopting the Town's Temporary Statutes Odluka o privremenom ustrojstvu grada Vinkovaca, adopted on 19 April 1993 by the Municipality Assembly and published on 23 June 1993 in Službeni vjesnik Županije Vukovarsko-srijemske , No. 2.
The flag and arms ar described in Article 6 and 7 of the Town Statutes Statut grada Vinkovaca, adopted on 30 March 1994 by the Municipality Assembly and published in Službeni vjesnik Županije Vukovarsko-srijemske .

The flag has a field made of white and golden-yellow lozenges, with the coat of arms of the town in the middle. A variant has the lozenges in the lower edge ending into tails.
As prescribed in the Decision, the flag dimensions are 100 x 200 cm. The lozenge side is 17.5 cm in length, the distance between parallel edges is 15 cm. The top edge consists of six golden half-lozenges. The coat of arms is set 30 cm from the vertical edges and 65 cm from top; the coat of arms is 40 cm in width and 60.4 cm in height.

The designer of the flag is Dubravko Mataković. An academic painter, Mataković is rather famous for his peculiar artistic style in very popular comics (website).
In a personal communication, Mataković explained he has been commisioned to prepare the modernized versions of the coat of arms of the Vukovar-Srijem County and of the Town of Vinkovci. He was asked to do the flags too. The guidelines he received were to make the Town flag "similar to Bavarian" but with golden and silver lozenges, so he came out with the adopted design. He then decided the striped flag for the County to be kind of similar.

Željko Heimer, 16 July 2011

Coat of arms of Vinkovci

Coat of arms of Vinkovci - Image by Željko Heimer, 16 January 2003

The original coat of arms of Vinkovci was adopted on 22 September 1922. It was designed by the painter Mirko Rački after an idea of Mate Medvedović, Town Councillor and founder of the Town Museum.
The symbolic of the coat of arms is officialy explained as follows. The mural crown reminds to the Roman town of Cibaliae, upon which Vinkovci was buid; three bunches of grapes in the colors of the Croatian tricolor in golden field and three corn ears in the red field represent the wealth of the region; in the lower blue field there is a stone table, the symbol of the part that Vinkovci had in the national movement of 1848; three silver storks are for the wealthy marshy area. The silver bars stand for river Bosut with its tributary Ervenica, or, according to another tradition, Nevkoš.
According to Matija Klajn's Grb grada Vinkovaca (1964), the design of the coat of arms was suprevized by Ivan Bojničić, a leading heraldist of the time. The design was critically described by Isidor Kršnjavi, an other prominent Croat heraldist. Apparently the coat of arms has been used continually without any change since the 1920s, which is quite unusual in this part of the world.

Željko Heimer, 10 October 2009