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South Bohemian symbols, Czech Republic

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by Pascal Gross, 13 Nov 2001

South Bohemian Region flag
South Bohemian Region emblem
Proposals

See also:

South Bohemian Region flag

The lion is for Bohemia, towers for city of Ceske Budejovice (regional capital). The majority of south Bohemia was dominated by the house of Rozmberks ("Rosembergs") in the Middle Ages - this house was symbolized by a rose in various color combinations (see numerous south Bohemian municipalities), especially red-on-silver and gold-on-blue. As the gold-blue version is used predominantly in the eastern part of the Region, including its Moravian part (city of Dacice and surroundings), it is said to represent the Moravian part of the Region (instead of the Moravian eagle). Two vertical stripes, yellow and white, represent the medieval Golden Canal (linking numerous south Bohemian ponds) and the Vltava river ('Moldau' in German), respectively; the green field (obviously) stands for the forests and mountains.
Jan Zrzavy, 13 Nov 2001

Ceske Budejovice is of course the former Budweis, which gave name to the renowned Budweiser beer
Santiago Dotor, 13 Nov 2001

Yes ... but not "former", better "alternatively". There were both Czech- and German-speaking peoples in (south) Bohemia since the early Middle Ages but Germans evidently did not precede Czechs. However, after 1945 ethnical cleansing, there is no important national minority here. Another obsolete name is "Budiwoyz" (various spelling variants).
Jan Zrzavy, 13 Nov 2001

On this webpage you can see two *real* flags of the South Bohemian Region (CZE). Note that the "South Bohemian lion"
differs from the official shape of the Bohemian lion in COAs of the Czech Republic and most Czech regions.
Jan Zrzavy, 14 May 2002

South Bohemian Region - the lower hoist field should be divided 2:1:1:2. (Czech Vexillological Pages)
Jan Zrzavy, 31 Jul 2002

South Bohemian Region emblem

image from this webpage, reported by Jan Zrzavy, 2 Nov 2001

According to the regional www, the symbols of the South Bohemian Region (Czech Republic) have recently been approved by the parliamentary subcomittee. At present, I have no further details - the original proposal is included in Petr Exner's "Czech Vexillological Pages", and two minor changes were requested by the subcommittee prior to final decision: to modify the shape of the Bohemian lion to agree with the Czech COA and to divide the center of the rose into vertical halves, yellow and red.
Jan Zrzavy, 1 Nov 2001

Two more proposals were approved by the parliamentary subcommittee and now they are only waiting for inclusion into a new decree. They are flags of South Bohemian and Central Bohemian Regions (both BOAs, see CVP for the designs).
Source: Petr Exner mail + new edition of CVP.
Jan Zrzavy, 2 Nov 2001

Proposals

According to regional web pages, there were 27 proposals of the South Bohemian regional symbols, from which 7 have yet been selected. Future meeting of the committee will be nex week (July 3).
Jan Zrzavy, 26 Jun 2001

Four proposals for the regional flag and CoA of the South Bohemia region have been selected by the Regional Council and sent to the Regional Assembly for definitive approval. They are ranked as two variants of the best proposal, followed by the second and third bests (i.e. 1a, 1b, 2, 3). They are available at this webpage.
Note that the blossoms are derived from CoAs of various branches of the house of Rosemberg (the lords of most of South Bohemia), and that the wall and towers are simplified CoA of the regional capital, České Budějovice. The green fields with white and yellow stripes probably stand for natural characters of the region (compare the proposal for symbols of the
neighboring Plzen Region). However, there is one problem - a small portion of the South Bohemia Region (around Dacice city) is not in Bohemia but in Moravia, so the Moravian eagle should be included. The Regional Assembly session will take place
September 11, 2001.
Jan Zrzavy, 1 Aug 2001

The proposals for symbols of the South Bohemia were *preliminarily* approved by the parliamentary heraldic and vexillological subcommittee, but the Bohemian lion should be corrected to accord to the national COA form and the center of the rose flower should be divided vertically as well. (See Exner's CVP.)
Jan Zrzavy, 25 Sep 2001