Last modified: 2003-09-20 by dov gutterman
Keywords: dubrovnik | ragusa | croatia | st.blasius | libertas |
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St. Blasius Flag
by Zeljko Heimer
Libertas Flag
by Zeljko Heimer
See also:
Other Sites:
St. Blasius, parton of the city, the barry arms and motto
LIBERTAS are ancient symbols of Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik).
St. Blasius Flag - reintroduced: 1990's, based on primary flag of
the Republic of Ragusa. There is also
the Libertas Flag, based on secondary flag of the Republic of Ragusa.
Zeljko Heimer
I located what looks like an reproduction of Ragusa
historical flag at news
dubrovnik site.
Dov Gutterman, 26 August 1999
That is the old Ragusa flag, to be found on the flagchart in
Smith's FTAAATW [smi75b] , p.
205 (c. 1750) and on Danckerts' flag chart [dan05]
(c. 1710). I wonder whether this flag is a reconstruction of one
of those flag charts.
Jarig Bakker, 26 August 1999
This is indeed the flag of Ragusa (or Dubrovnik, as the local name is). The flag situation in the longlived Republic was such that two flags were used - the one with LIBERTAS shield, in many variations, was considered a kind of what we would call civil flag (and ensign - the flags were mostly used at sea in that time), and the on with picture of St. Blasius, the patron of the city was more ceremonial and "state" flag. Also the flag with the CoA was used, as some sources say, as they symbol of officials on vessels. Anyway, not going into details here (since I do not have references by hand), I can only say that after WW II city of Dubrovnik reatined only the Libertas flag (as the one with saint was not appropriate in socialist environment, of course) and that was usually red with yellow inscriprion, not unusually in three lines LI/BER/TAS (this design was reported before also). The modern city, after 1990, adopted the flag with St. Blasius as the official city flag, and it is used as such. However, in ceratin occasions, as it is the one mentioned on the site - the Dubrovnik summer festival (of theatre), the flag of liberty is used on opening ceremony and thruout of the festival it is hoisted on the city main square. It might be mentioned also, that as tradition goes, there is no definite design for libertas flag, and even if the same flag is used as the official flag on the main flag-pole (the one on photo), it is quite usual that each
