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Medjimurje County (Croatia)

Medjimurska zupanija

Last modified: 2008-06-28 by dov gutterman
Keywords: medjimurje | zupanija | county | croatia | star | medjimurska | zupanija |
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image by Željko Heimer



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Overview

The web page <www.medjimurje.coml> (defunct) mentioned in Croatian something about the coat of arms of Medjimurje (the law maybe). It is just a sentence. But could anyone translate it?
Pascal Vagnat, 24 December 1998

I guess that it means: "Also, a proposal for a decree featuring modifications and complements about the Coat of Arms and the flag of the Zupanija (county) will be submitted/presented."
T. T. Le, 24 December 1998

Since the new flag and Coat of Arms were adopted on 25 September 1996, and the article is just several weeks before that, I guess it gives hints about it. At that time the Coat of Arms, adopted sometime in 1993 or so, was changed so that the red and white field were interchanged, for a reason that I do not know. The former flag, that was simply a vertical (at least, I never saw horizontal version) banner of arms was chnaged to wither and red vertically divided bicolour with (new) Coat of Arms in the middle.
Željko Heimer, 31 December 1998

The Flag of Medjimurje county, adopted by the Assembly on 25 September 1996 (have no info on confirmation by the Ministry). The new Coat of Arms (pictured on the flag) is different from previously used one in position of the red and white fields.
Željko Heimer, 5 January 1999

I find it strange that these fields remain empty. I understand the croatian connection here, but anyhow, it is very uncommon to see partitioned shields without a charge in some partitions.
Jorge Candeias, 6 January 1999

The county of Medjimurje (Medjimurska zupanija, where dj stands for 'd with dash', being accepted writing in Croatian if sign for "d- dash" is not available) is northernmost and smallest county in Croatia. Is is situated between rivers Drava (south) and Mura (north along Hungarian border), with seat of administration in C<akovec. The most of the area was once land of high Croatian nobility, but during the centuries it bacame considered as part of the Hungarian kingdom (and not under administration of the parliament in Zagreb, under Habsburg empire). With the declaration of independence of Croatian lands from Austria-Hungary in 1918, it was proclaimed once again a part of Croatia, and Serb troops helped in maintaining it so within newly formed soth-slavic country. After that time a strong dehungarization was performed, so until WWII there were already small number of Hungarians living there. During WWII, it was anexed to Hungary, but after the war returned to Yugoslavia. Rather large Jewish community, that was leader of industrial deveopement, was scatered or killed during the war. However, Medjimurje remained one of the best developed and richest regions of Croatia.
Željko Heimer, 11 July 1999

Medjimurje in Hungarian: Murako:z (was part of Zala County) The word "ko:z" means: territory between the rivers.
Istvan Molnar, 19 September 2000

Concering a photo taken by Istvan Molnar, I have never yet seen a horizontal version of the county flag of Modjimurje - it seems that vertical variant as seen of this image is used even when horizontal hoisting is emploied. Therefore, one should consider the horizontal variant that as quite doublius and unconfirmed (even if it matches the description in the legislation well). On the photo the red stripe is near the hoist, that is clear, but if you look at the top part of the flag one could see an effect that could be gained by the fact that the other side if the flag (that would be obverse, in fact) is coloured differently, to have white stripe at hoist and red one in fly - my guess is that each side of this flag was printed separately with exatly equal design, so the image on reverse is not mirrored. I would not like to draw conclusions from this regarding what is the correct design, I am sure that it depends mostly on the flagmaker. On the other hand, most of the table flags in Croatia (and certainly those of Medjimurska county) would be produced in similar manner, with only one design printed on both sides.
Željko Heimer, 3 August 2001

The Medjimurje County is the smallest, in the far north of Croatia. The official name is Medimurska županija (d with dash and z with hatchek), from the region name Medimurje. Although Medjimurje is an acceptable variation (unlike the other specific Croatian letters, the digraph dj for d is acceptable). Somewhere it is written Medzimurska and Medzimurje that is certainly wrong and should be replaced with either d or dj.
It was established in 1992/93 (as all other modern counties), at the time only Cakovec, the capital, had the city status, and there were yet 17 communities.
In 1997 (together with wider administrative) reform two communities were promoted to cities - Mursko Središce and Prelog, and several nerw communities was formed by separation from bigger communities: Dekanovec, Gornji Mihaljevec, Orehovica, Sveta Marija and Šenkovec and in 2001 Pribislavec was formed also.
Željko Heimer, 3 Febuary 2004


Vertical Flag


image by Željko Heimer


Coat of Arms


image by Željko Heimer


1993 Flag (?)


image by Željko Heimer, 5 January 1999

Flag of Medjimurje county, in use from about 1993 until 25 September1996, probably adopted in the County Assembly, but not confirmed by the Ministry of Administration. Image based on several spotting on TV.
Željko Heimer, 5 January 1999

I reported flag that seems to be vertical banner of arms - that reported flag is either a variation that was considered to be adopted, or a decoration used before it was celar wat is to be done, or it is simply my errorneus report of the flag described above.
Željko Heimer, 11 July 1999


1994 Flag


image by Željko Heimer, 11 July 1999


image by Željko Heimer

Medjimurje county is one of the first counties that used its right to get the Coat of Arms and flag in Croatia after 1993. Since there was no historical Coat of Arms of the county, a new and modern Coat of Arms was adopted: per fess, 1. per pale Gules and Argent, 2. Azure a mullet of six Or. The shield is semicircular. It was adopted on 3 November 1994 (source 1). The changes of the decision in 1996 (source 2) only change the wording of the 1994 decision in more heralidical language, but the
design stays the same.
The flag that was adopted in 1994 was variation of the banner of arms: divided vertically, at hoist red and white quartered, at fly blue with yellow sixpointed star. That flag was never official, since the 1994 decision was not published in official gazette until 1996, together with the decision that changes it. However, it seems that it was at least in unofficial use in certain occasions. I reported flag that seems to be vertical banner of arms - that reported flag (1993 Flag (?)) is either a variation that was considered to be adopted, or a decoration used before it was celar wat is to be done, or it is simply my errorneus report of the flag described above.

In any case, on 19 September 1996, probably after the first refuzal of the Ministry of Adminsitration to confirm the flag, the changes to the 1994 decision were made, chnaging the flag to: vertically divided white and red with coat of arms in the middle. The official ratio is 1:2. The decision is to bacame valid with publication in the official gazette (the date I have not determined, but it seems that it is in september or October 1996), with prescription that it is to be used from the date of the approval from the Ministry. The aproval is dated 10 July 1996. (source 3).
According to the table flag that I received from the county, it seems that vertical version of the county flag is not rotated version of the flag, but rather remains vertically divdived per pale.

Sources:
1. Odluka o grbu i zastavi Zupanije medjimurske, no. 23, 3 November 1994, Sluzbeni glasnik Zupanije Medjimurske 4/1996, pp. 204-205. (Decision on the coat of arms and the flag of the Medjimurje County, Official gazette of the Medjimurje County).
2. Odluka o izmjenama i dopunama Odluke o grbu i zastavi Zupanije medjimurske, no. 24, 19-SEP-1996, SGZM 4/1996, pp. 205-206. (Decision of changes and additions to the Decision of the coat of arms and the flag of the Medjimurje County).
3. Rjesenje Ministarstva uprave, Kl. UP/I-017-02/94-01/55 Ur. br. 515- 04-03/1-96-2, Zagreb, 10-JUL-1996.
Željko Heimer, 11 July 1999