Municipal Flags and CoAs in Czechia

• Guidelines for Czech municipal flags
• Status of cities
• Arms as a source of municipal flags in Czechia

• Czech Republic
• Czech Municipalities
• Žďár Nad Sázavou CoA

Guidelines for Czech municipal flags

2. The surface of a new flag must not be the same as that of an already existing flag belonging to any community either in the Czech or in the Slovak Republic.

3. A new flag should not have become with any current State flag.

4. The surface of a newly introduced flag ought to be derived from the coat-of-arms of the respective community and its colors may be limited to the basic ones. It is possible to approve a flag in colors completely different from the ones in arms, if such a flag explesses any relation to the community history. Another case is if the flag had already been used in the past authentically and the respective community wishes to continue this use.

5. Such a flag is not approved on principle if its surface would be charged with a shield from the municipal coat-of-arms; the double utilization of the communal symbols is excluded. However, the sole heraldic convention found in the arms may be used freely, the letter as a "mirror image" including; the other letters are not recommended.

6. It is not allowed to use the inscriptions, motto and realistic illustrations or everything what makes the the flag recognizable with difficulty.

7. In case of a few variants of the flag those possessing more vexillological qualities are preferred (i.e. they should meet requirements of being expressive, simple and/or in accordance with the principle of fluttering).

8. Obverse and reverse sides of the flag must be identical. If the heraldic flag is adopted, the postion of the heraldic animals' head etc. must be described on the reverse side extra, when embopdying part of the whole coat-of-arms.

9. The surface of a banner is always identical with that of a flag both in its shape and proportions.

10. The surface of the flag must be simply descriptionable in words in the way that enables its manufacture without any graphic design.

Source: "Flags over Czech towns" (September 2000); an article by Zbyšek Svoboda: Czech municipal and civic flags, in which the new guidelines of the Heraldic Committee of the Czech Parliament are explained, as formulated in 1991.
Jarig Bakker, 22 Apr 2004

Status of cities