Croatian coat of arms

[Monolith]

I'm interested if somebody has any info about Croatian coat of arms, other than usual "lost in history" explanations...

[Monolith]

This is today's coat of arms of Croatia




And various versions of the coat of arms were used through the history:

These are the parts of today's coat of arms (note that some elements are changed) :














I would appreciate every info..

[Lucas Corso]

The pics over the white-red chessboard are from left to right: older coat of arms of Croatia, Dubrovnik/Ragusa, Dalmatia, Istra/Istria, Slavonia

However the main part of Istra/Istria was belonging to Republic of Venice till end of XVIII century...

[Vincent]

Originally Posted by Bardyllis

What's this? It looks sad. There are more beautiful images of Dalmatias coat-of-arms on the net

[Hrvoje]

Some say one of our kings when captured by Venetians played chess with Venetian lord to regain his freedom, he won and was released to adopt chessboard shield as his new Croatian coat of arms.

This link here is magnifiecent!!:
Croatian coat of arms

[Erasmus]

Croatian coat of arms on the roof of the church of St. Marko in Zagreb:

[M.R.]

Originally Posted by Hrvoje

Some say one of our kings when captured by Venetians played chess with Venetian lord to regain his freedom, he won and was released to adopt chessboard shield as his new Croatian coat of arms.

This link here is magnifiecent!!:
Croatian coat of arms

Remember that this pics,

http://www.croatianhistory.net/gif/zelhp.jpg
http://www.croatianhistory.net/gif/zelhvp.jpg
http://www.croatianhistory.net/gif/zelh2p.jpg
http://www.croatianhistory.net/gif/zelhkp.jpg
http://www.croatianhistory.net/gif/zelhhp.jpg
http://www.croatianhistory.net/gif/zelhs.jpg

were taken somewhere in Slovenia or modern day Austria, you can also notice Slovenian symbols, like symbols of Carinthia, Styria, Celjski counts, Carniola...

Regards

[Levin]

The symbol (red-white chessboard) seems very old. Are the red and white colors symbols of western and southern sides, or is there another explanation?

Red and white colors are national colors of Poland, and, as seen in the above mentioned link, a very similar symbol is to be found in the arms of Moravia (Czech Republic):



...in the coat of arms of Češko, and in the following coat of arms described as 'Arms of Greater Poland from 15th century' (?):



Was the symbol originally connected only to central-European Croats and carried to the south, or was it common Slavic symbol of the area?

[Monolith]

Originally Posted by Levin

Was the symbol originally connected only to central-European Croats and carried to the south, or was it common Slavic symbol of the area?

It would seem that, outside Croatia, red and white chessboards were used only in parts of the old White Croatia (which included parts of today's Poland,Czech Republic and Slovakia), mentioned by the Roman emperor Constantine VII.

One theory says that the Croats were Iranian tribe, and Iranians used colors to describe 4 parts of the world. For example, they used white color for north and red for south. So the White Croatia was marked as white because it was north of their former homeland.
And while their former homeland was on the south, they created red and white chessboard as their symbol.
But it's just a convenient theory, and it's hard to prove due to lack of historical data.

[Crvena zvezda]

- I thought this was a Slovenian symbol. Because the flag of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes had it on it although it had three stars and the background was blue.

[Monolith]

Originally Posted by Crvena zvezda

- I thought this was a Slovenian symbol. Because the flag of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes had it on it although it had three stars and the background was blue.

This is the oldest Croatian coat of arms.

It was used since 12th century (first found on coins dated from 1196.).

[Heretik]

Originally Posted by Levin

The symbol (red-white chessboard) seems very old. Are the red and white colors symbols of western and southern sides, or is there another explanation?

I think that chessboard dates to Persian times. Not sure though.

[M.R.]

Originally Posted by Crvena zvezda

- I thought this was a Slovenian symbol. Because the flag of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes had it on it although it had three stars and the background was blue.

No it was not, that banner from SHS state flag was made in 20th century. It's a mixture of this banner you have in your post (not Slovenian) and coat of arms of Counts Celjski which had 3 yellow stars on blue background.

[Crvena zvezda]

Here's a coat of arms I found. Apparently the person says it is the coat of arms of Tsar Dushans son, notice that the Sahovic appears in it (i don't know why):

[Vincent]

Originally Posted by Crvena zvezda

Here's a coat of arms I found. Apparently the person says it is the coat of arms of Tsar Dushans son, notice that the Sahovic appears in it (i don't know why):

And this?

[Hrvoje]

It's the final proof that Croats are Catholic Serbs.

[Vincent]

Originally Posted by Hrvoje

It's the final proof that Croats are Catholic Serbs.

It's justa drawing