
Last modified: 2004-01-17 by dov gutterman
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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.
Zeljko Heimer, 6 May 2000
sa-sa.jpg)
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

by Haris Delalic, 1 November 1999
Here are variations of the flag of Sarajevo that were used before the 1998 flag was adopted:
City of Sarajevo 197x-199x flag used, probably since early 1970's to early 1990's.
City of Sarajevo 199x-1998 flag used, since first half of
1990's to 1998 when the "clear" version was adopted.
Zeljko Heimer , 6 May 2000
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.
Zeljko 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