The coat of arms of the Republic of Croatia consists of one main shield and five smaller shields which form a crown over the main shield. The main coat of arms is a checkerboard (chequy) that consists of 13 red and 12 white fields. It is also informally known in Croatian as šahovnica. The five smaller shields represent five different historical regions within Croatia.
The national flag of Switzerland displays a white cross in the centre of a square red field. The white cross is known as the Swiss cross or the federal cross. Its arms are equilateral, and their ratio of length to width is 7:6. The size of the cross in relation to the field was set in 2017 as 5:8.
The current coat of arms of the Republic of Austria has been in use in its first forms by the First Republic of Austria since 1919. Between 1934 and the German annexation in 1938, the Federal State used a different coat of arms, which consisted of a double-headed eagle.
The coat of arms of Germany displays a black eagle with a red beak, a red tongue and red feet on a golden field, which is blazoned: Or, an eagle displayed sable beaked langued and membered gules. This is the Bundesadler, formerly known as Reichsadler. It is one of the oldest coats of arms in the world, and today the oldest national symbol used in Europe.
Each of the 26 modern cantons of Switzerland has an official flag and a coat of arms. The history of development of these designs spans the 13th to the 20th centuries.
The coat of arms of Finland is a crowned lion on a red field, the right foreleg replaced with an armoured human arm brandishing a sword, trampling on a sabre with the hindpaws. The coat of arms was originally created around the year 1580.
The coat of arms of Egypt is known as the Republican Eagle or Egyptian Golden Eagle, is a heraldic golden eagle, facing the viewer's left (dexter). The eagle's breast is charged with an escutcheon bearing the red-white-black bands of the flag of Egypt rotated vertically, whilst the eagle's talons hold a scroll bearing the official name of the state written in Kufic script. The earliest version of the Eagle of Saladin was that used as the flag of Saladin, the first Sultan of Egypt, whilst the modern version of the eagle was adopted during the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. Subsequently, the modern design of the Eagle of Saladin was adopted as the coat of arms of numerous other states in the Arab World, namely the United Arab Republic, North Yemen, Iraq, South Yemen, the Libyan Arab Republic, and Palestine. The current eagle was modified in 1984 to its present form.
The coat of arms of the Swiss Confederation shows the same white-on-red cross as the flag of Switzerland, but on a heraldic shield instead of the square field.
In classical heraldry, vert is the tincture equivalent to the colour "green". It is one of the five dark tinctures (colours). The word vert is simply the French word for "green". It is used in English in the sense of a heraldic tincture since the early 16th century. In Modern French, vert is not used as a heraldic term. Instead, the French heraldic term for green tincture is sinople. This has been the case since c. the 16th century. In medieval French heraldry, vert also meant "green" while sinople was a shade of red. Vert is portrayed by the conventions of heraldic "hatching" by lines at a 45-degree angle from upper left to lower right, or indicated by the abbreviation vt. when a coat of arms is tricked.
Portuguese heraldry encompasses the modern and historic traditions of heraldry in Portugal and the Portuguese Empire. Portuguese heraldry is part of the larger Iberian tradition of heraldry, one of the major schools of heraldic tradition, and grants coats of arms to individuals, cities, Portuguese colonies, and other institutions. Heraldry has been practiced in Portugal at least since the 11th century, however it only became standardized and popularized in the 16th century, during the reign of King Manuel I of Portugal, who created the first heraldic ordinances in the country. Like in other Iberian heraldic traditions, the use of quartering and augmentations of honor is highly representative of Portuguese heraldry, but unlike in any other Iberian traditions, the use of heraldic crests is highly popular.
The city of Bern is one of the Zähringer foundations of the late 12th century. By the end of the 13th century, it had acquired de facto imperial immediacy. It became a full member of the Old Swiss Confederacy in 1353, and during the 15th century managed to significantly expand its sphere of influence, notably with the conquest of Aargau in 1415. With the acquisition of Vaud in 1536, Bern became the most powerful city-republic north of the Alps, and one of the leading Protestant cities in early modern Switzerland. The canton of Bern in the Restored Confederacy of 1815 even after the loss of Aargau and Vaud remained the largest Swiss canton, relegated to second rank only with the secession of Jura in 1979. Since 1848 Bern has served as the federal city (capital) of Switzerland.
The flag and coat of arms of Kedah are the state symbols of Kedah, Malaysia. Very little distinction is present between the flag and coat of arms of the state, as the flag consists of only a red field with the state arms on the upper hoist.
The Bärengraben, or Bear Pit, is a tourist attraction in the Swiss capital city of Bern. It is a bear pit, or enclosure housing bears, situated at the eastern edge of the old city of Bern, next to the Nydeggbrücke and the River Aar. Although still in use, the Bärengraben has been supplemented since 2009 by the adjacent BärenPark, a larger and more natural enclosure alongside the River Aar.
The coat of arms of Amsterdam is the official coat of arms symbol of the city of Amsterdam. It consists of a red shield and a black pale with three silver Saint Andrew's Crosses, the Imperial Crown of Austria, two golden lions, and the motto of Amsterdam. Several heraldic elements have their basis in the history of Amsterdam. The crosses and the crown can be found as decorations on different locations in the city.
The coat of arms of Berlin is used by the German city state as well as the city itself. Introduced in 1954 for West Berlin, it shows a black bear on a white shield. On top of the shield is a special crown, created by the amalgamation of the mural crown of a city with the so-called people's crown, used in Germany to denote a republic. Berlin's various boroughs use their own emblems.
This article is about the coat of arms of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Conrad Justinger was a 14th-century chronicler who was probably born in Strasbourg.
The bear as heraldic charge is not as widely used as the lion, boar or other beasts.
Icelandic heraldry is the study of coats of arms and other insignia used in Iceland. It belongs to the German-Nordic heraldic tradition, as the heraldry of Iceland has been primarily influenced by the heraldic traditions of Norway, Denmark and other Nordic countries. Iceland does not have a strong sense of heraldic tradition, however, because the country lacks a governing body to oversee this. As a result, coats of arms registered as such are virtually nonexistent in modern Iceland. While many municipalities use more or less heraldic logos, there are no heraldic standards to which these must adhere, and they are registered as graphic designs rather than as coats of arms.
A number of cross symbols were developed for the purpose of the emerging system of heraldry, which appeared in Western Europe in about 1200. This tradition is partly in the use of the Christian cross an emblem from the 11th century, and increasingly during the age of the Crusades. Many cross variants were developed in the classical tradition of heraldry during the late medieval and early modern periods. Heraldic crosses are inherited in modern iconographic traditions and are used in numerous national flags.
