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Kostajnica (Municipality, Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Bosanska Kostajnica

image by Ivan Sache, 6 May 2022

Presentation of Kostajnica
Flag of Kostajnica
Coat of arms of Jajce

See also:

Presentation of Kostajnica

The municipality of Kostajnica (5,977 inhabitants in 2013; 851 ha) is located on the border with Croatia, here river Una; which separates it from Hrvatska Kostajnica.
One of the youngest municipalities in Republika Srpska, Kostajnica was established in 1995, separating from Novi Grad, as Srpska Kostajnica, to be subsequently renamed to Bosanska Kostajnica and, eventually, Kostanjica.

Ivan Sache, 6 May 2022

Flag of Kostajnica

The flag of the Municipality of Bosanska Kostajnica is white with the municipal coat of arms in the center, as is described in the Statute of the Municipality, adopted on 31.03.2016
https://www.opstina-kostajnica.com/images/stories/Statut_optine_Kostajnica_5_16.pdf

The flag and arms of Kostanjica are prescribed in Article 6 of the Municipal Statutes, last amended on 31 March 2016 and published on 6 April 2016 in the municipality's official gazette No. 5.

(4) The flag of the municipality is rectangular in shape, two to one, white with the coat of arms of the municipality in the center.

Ivan Sache, 6 May 2022

Coat of arms of Kostanjica

The flag and arms of Kostanjica are prescribed in Article 6 of the Municipal Statutes, last amended on 31 March 2016 and published on 6 April 2016 in the municipality's official gazette No. 5.

(3) The coat of arms of the municipality has the shape of a shield, in the central part of which is the fruit [chestnut] after which Kostajnica was named, and in the lower part two chestnut leaves that frame the shield in brown. Above the two leaves, the blue color represents river Una; on the right the Old Town is symbolically represented, and on the left the bridge over river Una. The shield's center is green; the two hills symbolize hill Balj, known for its chestnut forest. The upper part of the shield is blue, representing the sky; with the lower part, which is also blue, it gives a certain symmetry to the coat of arms. At the top of the shield is the flag of Republika Srpska, slightly fluttering. The masonry stone blocks framing the sides of the coat of arms symbolize struggle and construction. In the upper part of the coat of arms is the year "1258", when Kostajnica was first mentioned as a settlement in written documents.

Ivan Sache, 6 May 2022

In the central part of the emblem there is a bridge over the Una and the Old Town, which are actually located on the territory of the Republic of Croatia. Can the coats of arms of local communities contain elements that are not on their territory, in fact they are in another country?
Tomislav Šipek, 7 May 2022

I think that the municipal coat of arms refers to the old Town Kostajnica as one medieval town, that now is divided between Bosnia and Croatia, but once was one city Castanowiz.
Valentin Poposki, 7 May 2022

The problem here is that the coat of arms is more political than heraldic, in fact heraldic is not at all.
The Germanized name Castanowiz refers more to the Croatian Kostajnica than to the Bosnian one. Namely, there was a customs on the way from the Ottoman Empire to Vienna, and hence the German name of the place. The Kostajnica area (on both sides of the Una) first came into contact with the German language in 1526 with the accession of Croatia to the Habsburg Empire, but soon the whole area fell into the hands of the Turkish Empire. After more than 100 years, now the area of Hrvatska Kostajnica became part of the Habsburg Empire at the end of the 17th century, while Bosanska Kostajnica entered the Habsburg Empire only in 1878, but then disappeared the importance of Kostajnica as a major customs settlement.
Tomislav Šipek, 14 May 2022