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Pozega (Pozega-Slavonia, Croatia)

Last modified: 2003-10-10 by dov gutterman
Keywords: pozega | croatia | pozesko-slavonska | saint teresa |
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(1:2)
by Zeljko Heimer, 25 June 2000



See also:

Other sites:

  • Collection of Croatian Local Flags at FAME

Overview

Poz<ega - A city of some 30 000 inhabitants in the middle of Slavonia region. It is situated in the valley called by ancient Romans Vallis Aurea encirceled by low mountains and one of the most fertile parts of Croatia. In medieval Croatia Pozega was already important trade center and seat of the county in 13th century. (No flags are reported from that period, though). The Turks enter Pozega in 1536 and remain there until 1691. During that time Pozega is the capital of sandjak covering most of Slavonia. After the Tuirkish period, Pozega is again seat of the county, remaining so until 1923, when the county structure is abandoned, and was not reintroduced until 1993, when it became capital of Poz<es<ko-slavonska county.
The coat of arms of the city of Pozega is in use at least since 1702, and is officially granted on 1 September 1765 by empress Maria Theresia, when Pozega acquired the status of the "free and royal city". It consists of a blue shield in baroque ornamented border, with three towered city walls and above those a golden eagle with spread wings, silver crescent and star, and a golden radiating sun. The same coat of arms (heraldically, with slight modernization of artistic redention) was readopted on 9 September 1993, when the flag was adopted, too, blue with the coat of arms in the middle. Ratio 1:2.
Source: Pozega - turisticki vodic, Turisticka zajednica Grad Pozega, 1996. "Ime, grb, zastava i Dan grada", pp. 38-42. 
Zeljko Heimer, 22 June 2000

See at <www.pozega.hr>, AN image of the magistrate of Pozega, hoisting the flags of Croatia, the County and the City (properly ordered!).
Zeljko Heimer, 3 November 2000


The Flag and Coat of Arms


by Zeljko Heimer, 25 June 2000


The Ceremonial Flag


Ceremonial flag - obverse
by Zeljko Heimer, 22 June 2000


Ceremonial flag - reverse
by Zeljko Heimer, 22 June 2000


Ceremonial flag - reverse - detail
by Zeljko Heimer, 26 June 2000

There exsists also a ceremonial flag, that is vertical, and with golden fringe. On the reverse, three are richly ornamented roundels containing images of fra Luka Ibrisimovic, the leader of uprising against the Turks in 1688 and liberator of the city, Saint Teresa of Avila (sv. Terezija Avilska), patron of the city, and the column of the Holly Trinity, erected in the city center in 1749, in memory of 798 citizens died in the plague of 1739. (when city had only two tousend inhabitants). It seems that the ceremonial flag is not unique, but there exists several of them, some being hoisted in front of the main buidings of the city.
Source: Pozega - turisticki vodic, Turisticka zajednica Grad Pozega, 1996. "Ime, grb, zastava i Dan grada", pp. 38-42. 
Zeljko Heimer, 22 June 2000


1977 Symbols


Flag obverse
by Zeljko Heimer, 28 September 2003


Flag reverse
by Zeljko Heimer, 28 September 2003


Coat of Arms
by Zeljko Heimer, 28 September 2003

The city of Požega was named Slavonska Požega since 1929 until 1991 so to differenciate from the Požega city in central Serbia between Užice and Cacak.
In 1974 the local assembly decided to celebrate the 750 anniversary of the first mention of the city name in 1227 that would be held in 1977. It was decided that a new flag should be made for the occasion. The flag was produced in a specialized workshop of the Order of the Sisters of Mercy in Zagreb. It was designed by Frano Paro, academic painter and grapical worker, and it was based waguely reminiscent to the Požega voluntary fire-fighting society from 1875 (this one is blue swallow tailed guidon with coat of arms painted in the middle and patron on the revers with floral golden ornaments embroideried on it and is also preserved in the Požega City Museum).
The blue silk flag is fringed with gold. On the obverse is the coat of arms of the city, with the red five-pointed star incorporated in the ornament and the name of the city below. The reverse is ornament of the corn and vine elements with the years of the anniversary encirceled with rays formed by the flowers representing symbolically surrounding villages. The inscriptions names the Požega Valley in Latin and Croatian: Vallis Aurea - Požeška kotlina.
Since the end of the celebrations in 1977 the flag is preserved in the Požega museum.
This flag was certainly in turn the model for the current city flag adopted in 1993.
I would like to point out how cunningly is the red star incorporated in the design, as it was here from ever!
Zeljko Heimer, 28 September 2003