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Sarajevo (Sarajevo Canton, Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Last modified: 2008-07-19 by dov gutterman
Keywords: federation of bosnia and herzegovina | sarajevo | centar | novo sarajevo |
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image by Željko Heimer, 6 May 2000


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Overview

The flag and Coat of Arms of Sarajevo can be found at: <www.sarajevo.ba> . There is just the picture of the coat of arms, not the flag, but there are two official documents on the coat of arms and flag of that city. I think it is horizontally striped with the coat of arms in the middle, proportions 1:2 but I don't understand the two colours. Green over white?
Pascal Vagnat , 4 May 2000

The page indeed consist of the legal provisions regarding Coat of Arms and the flag of the city of Sarajevo. Both decisions are named temporary (or provisional) no doubt because the statute of the city is temporarily also. I guess it is still not decided what will be with the city now, when one have half-a-dozen communities dividing it (but that situation is no different then before the war, though) on one hand, and on the other the Sarajevo Canton (Sarajevski kanton) that almost entirely covers it. The decision are named:

(1) Privremena odluka o grbu i zastavi Grada Sarajeva, 28. marta 1998. Sluzbene novine Kantona Sarajevo, 6/98
(2) Privremena odluka o upotrebi grba i zastave Grada Sarajeva, 28. marta 1998, SNKS [6/98?]

The first one is actually decision on the coat of arms and the flag, while the other one regulates their use. The coat of arms is described (art. 2 of (1)) as (my translation):
"The coat of arms represent the elements of the typical roofs that in the same time symbolize the hills. The symbol of the city is made of civic walls with doors. The lower part of the coat of arms makes the terrain configuration - valleys with a bridged river over which the city is set."

Note that the colours are not mentioned at all. If we are to believe the graphics from the mentioned site, the shield is white, bordered golden, roofs-hills are green, walls black and base blue with white bridge.

The flag is defined imidiately in article 3:
"The flag of the City is light blue. The coat of arms in the flag is in the center. The flag can be made in different sizes, while retaining the ratio 2:1."

The coat of arms graphical representation is part of the decision, while the flag is not mentioned in that part. Also, it is notable that the size of the coat of arms is not determined in more details.

The second document is more or less standard and similar to the usage provisions of the civic symbols in this region. A detail that may be interesting to note is that there is provision allowing a car flag "of appropriate size" for the mayor.

As far as I am aware, the oldest representation of the coat of arms of Sarajevo is on 1970 Yugoslav stamp issued commemorating 25 years of liberation of the city (6 April 1945). I have no firm evidence, but based on the overall layout of the coat of arms, it may very well be that the CoA was actually devised just for that purpose and that this stamp is, if not the premiere, the certainly the first "massive" publication of it. If I am right about that, it may be that the flag - light blue with that coat of arms in the center - was adopted at the same time, though I have no evidence on that (not even on the existance of that flag). Hopefully, we'll find some evidence in support of this, or against it in future. The coat of arms printed on the mentioned stamp is basically the same as the one used today, though it differs in colours used (indeed, if the "current" colours are right ones). In any case, there the shield is still white (silver), roofs-hills are also green, but the walls are red, while the river in base is - green! The shape of the bridge is somewhat different, too (there having three arches and the "dots" closer to center). In cheif, inbetween the roofs there was set a red fivepointed star. This coat of arms was in use until the beggining of the war in B&H, and fell into disuse, probably, say in May 1991. With the war in B&H the star was removed, and on several occasions I have seen the same coat of arms with a fleur-de-lys Or set in place of the star. It is very likely that such coat of arms was officially adopted at some time in first half of 1990's. It may be now that the colour of the base field was changed into blue.
Such coat of arms set in the middle of a light blue flag is visible on the proposal of the greater coat of arms of the Sarajevo-Centar community coat of arms. It is hard to see anything there, but it seems that the bridge in that image is still of tripple arch.
With the ommition of the national(istic) symbols from the entire iconography in the Federation, it is to be expected that the fleur-de- lys is removed, as indeed happened in the 1998 decision quoted above.
As I suspect, the image of the coat of arms provided on the page may be incorrect, and it should not be ruled out until further evidence that the coat of arms is not still the same one, minus the star.
Željko Heimer, 6 May 2000


Sarajevo Coat of Arms


image from <www.sarajevo.ba> , located by Pascal Vagnat , 4 May 2000

I found this link for the flags and coat of arms of Sarajevo. There is the image of the coat of arms, but not of the flag. There is the law on the coat of arms and the flag though, but in Bosnian language
Pascal Vagnat , 4 May 2000

Privious Coat of Arms


image by Haris Delalic, 1 November 1999


Sarajevo Historical Flags

Here are variations of the flag of Sarajevo that were used before the 1998 flag was adopted:


image by Željko Heimer , 6 May 2000

City of Sarajevo 197x-199x flag used, probably since early 1970's to early 1990's.


image by Željko Heimer , 6 May 2000

City of Sarajevo 199x-1998 flag used, since first half of 1990's to 1998 when the "clear" version was adopted.
Željko Heimer , 6 May 2000


Novo Sarajevo


image by Željko Heimer, 29 August 2004


image by Željko Heimer, 29 August 2004

Novo Sarajevo is one of the communities in which the city of Sarajevo is divided, in the Sarajevo Canton, of course. Novo Sarajevo is as the name suggest a new part of the city buit after the World War II. The symbols adopted are appropriate in that context.  
As I was informed after asking for some flag info on the official web site of the community at <www.novosarajevo.ba>, the coat of arms and the flag were adopted by a community council decision on 4 April 2000, published in the cantonal official gazette: Odluka o grbu i zastavi Opcine Novo Sarajevo i njihovoj upotrebi, 04. 04. 2000. Službene novine Kantona Sarajevo, br. 5/2000   The coat of arms picture the modern sights of the city - the telecommunications tower at the Hum hill and the building of the power company Elektroprivreda BiH and a bridge over the Miljacka river as dark blue silhuettes against the silver shield. The flag is light blue with the white bordered coat of arms in the middle. Apparently the flag is used only in the vertical variant.
Željko Heimer, 29 August 2004


Sarajevo-Centar


image by Željko Heimer, 10 April 2005


Coat of Arms
image by Željko Heimer, 10 April 2005


Proposal for the Ceremonial Flag - Not Adopted
image by Željko Heimer, 10 April 2005

I located a flag at: <www.sarajevo-centar.org>.
Dov Gutterman , 8 April 2000

It's flag of community of Sarajevo-Center (Opcina Sarajevo Centar), the oldest part of Sarajevo, B&H.
Ivan Sarajcic , 8 April 2000

This is what the site says:
This is the new Coat of Arms of the Community of Centar, adopted on the assembly session in Jul 1999 among several proposals given by the Concourse commision for the new Coat of Arms and flag after the public concourse. The author of the design is a young female designer Semka Guso.
The new Coat of Arms and flag of the Community of Centar were officially adopted by the Community Council on its session on 21 October 1999. It was decided that the colours (yellow and blue) on the flag be darker to match those on the flag of B&H.
The Coat of Arms is dominated by an unusual tree - a motive copied from a standing stone [mideval grave stone typical for B&H] in the Land Museum symbolizing the growth of the Community and security, and the blue band represent the river Miljacka [river of Sarajevo]. The base of the shield is red land from which the tree is growing while green field is symbol of the healthy natural environment for the life.
This image is the original proposal of the author for the flag of the Community with the ceremonial Coat of Arms (that one is prescribed for memorial plates and similar occasions). The design of the adopted flag is the same, but the shade of blue and yellow is darker.
Željko Heimer, 9 April 2000

The site mentioned above (<www.sarajevo-centar.org>) shows a different flag now. Maybe there has been a recent change ?
Above is the new version of the flag of Centar-Sarajevo.
Pascal Gross, 30 June 2000

My comment of 9 April 2000 goes about the previously shown flag there that was slightly different and it was only a proposal for the ceremonial flag, not adopted.  
Therefore we have this today: The coat of arms is vert base gules divided with a wavy bar azure fimbriated argent and overall a golden stylized three with two birds. The wavy bar represents the Miljacka river and the tree is a copy of a tree found on a medieval stone monuments known as stecci, preserved in the Land Museum in Sarajevo. The flag is blue, white and golden/yellow tricolour divided diagonally with the coat of arms in the middle.   While the 1999 proposal is: The ceremonial flag proposed in 1999 was similar to the finally adopted one, bearing the lighter shades of blue and yellow (probably as the originally proposed normal flag) and having a ceremonial varison of the coat of arms in the middle. Nither the ceremonial coat of arms nor the ceremonial flag were adopted in the end.   One may notice that the ceremonial coat of arms pictures two flags, the sinister one it that of the city of Sarajevo (at the time already abandoned in 1998), and the dexter one may have been intended of the Canton of Sarajevo, but if so it is a stylization (the cantonal flag was at the time also in the process of adoption).
Željko Heimer, 10 April 2005