Last modified: 2011-03-19 by ivan sache
Keywords: postojna | eagle (white) | proteus | olm |
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Flag of Postojna, horizontal and vertical versions, ratio 2:5 - Images by Željko Heimer, 29 September 2006
Flag of Postojna, horizontal and vertical versions, ratio 1:2 - Images by Željko Heimer, 29 September 2006
Table and ceremonial(?) flag of Postojna - Images by Željko Heimer, 29 September 2006
See also:
Postojna had the municipality status before the 1990s.
Željko Heimer, 24 January 2000
The flag and arms of Postojna are prescribed by Decision Odlok o simbolih Občine Postojna (text), adopted on 13 September 2005 and published on 21 October 2005 in the official Slovene gazette Uradni list Republike Slovenije, 93/2005.
The flag is Bordeaux red with the municipal emblem placed near the hoist. The proportions of the flag are not stated in the decision; the material provided
on the municipal website gives two versions with proportions 1:2 and 2:5, the latter
being the prefered one, seemingly. The text of the Decision states
that the "horizontal flags may be used as well if necessary" - so the
two versions exist in yet two proportion variants.
The document from the municipal website also shows a fifth
variant, being called a table flag, in which the background of the
flag is "watermarked" with the
eagle and the proteus outlined in black and enlarged to the whole flag, and white
inscription OPČINA/POSTOJNA below the symbol.
The Decision printed in the official gazette
shows a sixth version of the flag, not found in the document from the municipal website, a
vertical flag in proportions 2:5 with a simple monocoloured background, but with the
white inscription.
Željko Heimer, 29 September 2006
Emblem of Postojna - Image by Željko Heimer, 8 March 2004
The emblem of Postojna is
made of a shield divided per fess azure and gules, overall an eagle
displayed argent, in base per chevron embowed argent a proteus
proper. Bordered or and crowned with mural crown argent.
The Decision retains the provision of the 1993 Decision on the coat of arms, which is still the one granted in 1909. The new artistic redention of the emblem is now much closer to the original 1909 design - having a more heraldic depiction of the
eagle, the crown being now properly argent and masoned, the blue
shade being closer to the light blue used in the original 1909 grant of
arms.
Proteus or olm (Proteus anguinus; in German,
Grottenolm) is an endemic spieces of Amphibians (in Slovenian,
it is literally called "human fish") living in everlasting darkness
of karst caves. It is the symbol of a huge cave system that has
opening in Postojna. Its proper color is very light pinkish.
Željko Heimer, 29 Septembre 2006
According to the website of the Lausanne Zoology Museum (Switzerland), the story tells that the head of the post office of Vrhnika once went on trout fishing in the source of the Lintvern river (located today in the municipality of Logatec, photo). The source was famous for its very irregular flow, swiftly increasing from a few to more than one thousand liters per second without any "natural" cause. Local people claimed that the source was supplied in water by an undergroud lake inhabited by a dragon; when the dragon frisked, the lake overflew and water gushed fourth in the surface. Modern hydrologists call this a karstic intermittent source. Eager to catch trouts, the Vrhnika postman removed a few rocks to increase the source flow and was rewarded with the discovery of a baby dragon, that is an olm.
Darren Nash recalls that the legend of the baby dragons from Lintvern was peddled by Valvasor in his famous compilation, The Glory of the Duchy of
Carniola (1689). Valvasor made the incorrect assumption (wise, but
too good to be true!) that the name Lintvern was related with the
German word Lindwurm, "a dragon".
Later on, the Italian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (1723-1788)
captured live olms in Idrija; the Austrian naturalist Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti (1735-1805), considered as the founder of herpetology (reptilia science), named the beast Proteus anguinus in 1768.
The Ljubljana dragon may also be related with the olm; it was "originally" captured by Jason in the marshes spreading between Vrhnika and Ljubljana.
Ivan Sache, 9 October 2010
Former flag, horizontal and vertical versions, and emblem of Postojna - Images by Željko Heimer, 8 March 2004
The former flag and emblem of Postojna were prescribed by Decision Odlok o simbolih občine Postojna, adopted on 18 March 1993 and published in the official Slovene gazette Uradni list Republike Slovenije, 18/1993.
The flag is described as follows:
The flag is white, bordered with red rectangle triangles. On the flag
is the emblem of the municipality.
The flag is in proportions 1:2 with 6 x 12 full "white teeth" and the coat of arms offset apparently 1/6 of the hoist from the center.
The former vertical flag of Postojna is shorter, lacking the borders along the top, in proportions 6 x 9.5 white triangles (ie. 12:19), with the emblem in the middle.
The former emblem of Postojna had been in use at least since the 1980s. It is
made of a shield divided per fess azure and gules, overall an eagle
displayed argent, in base per chevron embowed argent a proteus
proper. Bordered or and crowned with mural crown or.
In the aforementioned Decision, the emblem
is named "emblem" or "symbol" (znak), and the entire paragraph
reads:
The emblem of the municipality is the simplified coat of arms. It is shield-shaped, divided into three coloured fields. The shape of the
eagle, the crown with three windows (sic) and the proteus are
simplified. The ornamental border of the shield is omitted.
Željko Heimer, 13 May 2006
Coat of arms of Postojna - Image from the Postojna municipal website, 23 September 2002
The municipal arms of Postojna were granted by Emperor Franz
Joseph I on 9 May 1909. At the same time the town of Postojna was
given its civic status.
The coat of arms of Postojna is blazoned in the original grant (in
Slovene, my translation) as "Per fess azure and gules, overall an eagle displayed argent
beaked and membered or and langued gules, in base per chevron embowed
argent a Proteus proper, bordered with a bronze ornament and crowned
with a silver mural crown with five visible embattlements".
Željko Heimer, 23 September 2002