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Tržič (Municipality, Slovenia)

Municipal flag of Tržič, horizontal and vertical versions - Images by Željko Heimer, 2 April 2000

Presentation of Tržič
Flag of Tržič
Coat of arms of Tržič
Former flag and arms of Tržič

See also:

Presentation of Tržič

Tržič was already a municipality before the 1990s.

Željko Heimer, 2 April 2000

Flag of Tržič

The flag and arms of Tržič are prescribed by Decision Odlok o grbu in zastavi Občine Tržič, adopted on 1 October 1997 and published on 24 October 1997 in the official Slovene gazette Uradni list Republike Slovenije, No. 65.

The symbols were designed by Valt Jurečič of Heraldika d.o.o. and Heraldica Slovenica, who kindly provided drawings from which the images shown on this page were made.

The flag, based on the municipal coat of arms, is in proportions 2:5, vertically divided blue-white with an embattled division, made of three blue squares and two and two half white squares.

Željko Heimer, 12 September 2005

Coat of arms of Tržič

Coat of arms of Tržič - Image by Željko Heimer, 12 September 2005

The coat of arms of Tržič is "Azure, masoned walls argent with four embattlements".
The detailed description of the arms requires seven rows of stones visible in the wall and four loopholes below the embattlements in the fifth row from the base. The coat of arms is outlined in yellow, as this is the case with many modern artistical renditions of the Slovene local coats of arms. The colours used are specified as:
- Blue: CMYK (%) 100-35-0-10;
- Yellow: CMYK (%) 0-20-100-0.

Tržič was once known under the German name of Neumarktl or Neumarktl in Krain. The seal used before 1918 (image) was basically the same as the today's arms, showing city walls with gates on a shield within a cartouche. The colours are, so far unknown; they might have been black and red (image). In 1939, however, Laszowski's Grbovi Jugoslavije album [lsv39] already showed a coat of arms basically equal to the current design, except the shield shape (image).

In the article Zgodovini na rob - o obćinskem grbu, published on 30 August 2012 in the municipal magazine Tržič, No. 6, Janez Šter provides hint that the coat of arms was previously used in red and black colours (although it is not clear how exactly, but, apparently, until the 1970s). Older issues of Tržič (example) picture on the cover a carved example of the arms fairly similar to the pre-1918 version, but again without colours.
Šter recounts that the project for a new version of the coat of arms was initiated by Edo Roblek, the Director of the local institute for culture and education, established in 1974. The institute then ran the local library, museums, galleries and educative activities, and its director was kind of a local "Minister of Culture" (as Šter states). At some point (Šter does not state exactly when, presumably after 1974), Roblek "proclaimed" that "our coat of arms is not entirely right" and asked "how can we look at that black-red sign on our documents?". The general opinion in the municipal administration at the time was that "the black and red colours are smelling of clerical ideology", although the truth was that the red and black were the colours of the cordovan leather traditionally manufactured in Tržič. Anyway, the municipality sent official requests to the Scientific Research Centre of the Slovene Academy of Arts and Sciences (ZRC SAZU) and to Pr. Boris Orel, reputedly the highest authority for heraldry in Slovenia at the time*.
As the issue was going very slowly, Roblek eventually called upon one of his young assistants ("being only a kid and a trainee", says Šter) and instructed him that the the new design should be ready within two hours. The two then hastily browsed the available documentation, tocome out with a design that was mainly differing in its colours. The new features were, according to Šter, easily agreed upon, as "blue skies (height, depth, wisdom, azureus, clear atmosphere), white walls in the shield (white mountains, snow, skiing), gates (hospitality - open or not?), and water as the confluence of rivers Mošenik and Bistrica". Thus the move from black-red version was made, states Šter. Pr. Orel was contacted by phone, only to provide infrmationo on basic heraldic colours.
Finally, Šter hints that he was that "kid" who worked with Roblek on the design. The design was "still hot" given to the Mayor, and the rest is the history... Eventually, some years later, the design was improved once again, "under the expert leadership by Tomaž Mikolič"**, and adopted through proper procedure, to the current design "considered by many among the most beautiful in Slovenia".

*However, the famous ethnologist and museologist of that name, passed away in 1962 - so maybe the recounted events took place a decade or more prior to 1974. Then again, afterwards Šter states that he writes this from memory "after some three decades", meaning that the events would have occurred in the early 1980s. I am inclined to think that Šter meant to mention Pr. Božo Otorepec, a known Slovene heraldic expert of the last decades of the20th century.

**It is unclear to me what the "expert leadership" would mean, whether he was the administrative officer who led the team given the task or if he was leading the design of the new symbols - and should be credited for the design. Valt Jurečič's website includes the coat of arms of Tržič among those Jurečič considers his own work. Mikolič would therefore have "led the team" from the municipal side and have been a "liaison officer" with Jurečič.

Željko Heimer, 14 November 2012

Former flag and arms of Tržič

Former flag and arms of Tržič - Images by Željko Heimer, 18 September 2004

According to Zalokar [zal90], the former flag of Tržič was red with the former coat of arms in the middle. Zalokar claims that the red field of the flag stands for the leather industry in Tržič.
The white walls on a blue shield are part of the traditional coat of arms of Tržič. The former coat of arms was officially adopted in the 1980s, in a slightly different artistic presentation, including a closed wooden door.

Željko Heimer, 18 September 2004