The Coat of arms of Styria is the historic coat of arms of the region of Styria, a federal state of Austria. It shows a white heraldic panther with red horns and claws breathing red fire on a green field. The shield is crowned with the ducal hat of Styria. [1] [2] The coat of arms is also used in several municipal arms of the state, including Graz and Steyr.
The panther, as the heraldic animal of Styria, was first used in the seal of Margrave Ottokar III in 1160. It was derived from the arms of the Traungau family. When Styria was made a duchy in 1180, the panther became the symbol of the entire duchy. The panther was originally black on a white field, but this was changed to the current color scheme in the 13th century in order to avoid confusion with Carantania, which at the time also used the black panther arms. [3] [4] [5]
The coat of arms was first described in detail by the chronicler Ottokar of the Gaal, who documented around 1315 how the Styrian nobility fought alongside King Ottokar II of Bohemia in 1253 against the Hungarians under King Béla IV. Ottokar's state marshal, Herrand von Wildon described the flag as
"ein banier grüene als ein gras / darin ein pantel swebte / blanc, als ob ez lebte“ [6] (a banner as green as grass / wherein a panther floated / white, as if it were alive)
In its current form, the coat of arms has been officially used since 1926 - in that year, the arms was modified to omit the flames that had previously emerged from all the panther's orifices (not only mouth and ears, but also from the phallus and anus). A member of the state parliament, Frida Mikula, sponsored the change due to the arms' apparent "obscenity".
The heraldic animal in its pre-1926 form can be seen today in the coat of arms of the Styrian capital, Graz.
Heraldic research today also points to the strong symbolic effect and the tradition of the Styrian coat of arms: “The Styrian heraldic animal has [...] become a quasi-living symbol of Styrian independence. With the possible exception of the Tyrolean eagle , no coat of arms of the Austrian federal states can match it in terms of identity. [...] The Styrian coat of arms has been in use in practically unchanged form for more than 750 years. Together with the red-white-red shield it is one of the oldest and most venerable state symbols in Europe [4] ."
The history of Styria concerns the region roughly corresponding to the modern Austrian state of Styria and the Slovene region of Styria (Štajerska) from its settlement by Germans and Slavs in the Dark Ages until the present. This mountainous and scenic region, which became a centre for mountaineering in the 19th century, is often called the "Green March", because half of the area is covered with forests and one quarter with meadows, grasslands, vineyards and orchards. Styria is also rich in minerals, soft coal and iron, which has been mined at Erzberg since the time of the Romans. The Slovene Hills is a famous wine-producing district, stretching between Slovenia and Austria. Styria was for long the most densely populated and productive mountain region in Europe.
The flag of Austria is the flag of the nation of Austria. It consists of three bands of color in the following order: red, white, and red.
Styria is a state (Bundesland) in the southeast of Austria. With an area of 16,401 km2 (6,332 sq mi), Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to the south by Slovenia, and clockwise, from the southwest, by the Austrian states of Carinthia, Salzburg, Upper Austria, Lower Austria, and Burgenland. The state capital is Graz.
Steyr is a statutory city, located in the Austrian federal state of Upper Austria. It is the administrative capital, though not part of Steyr-Land District. Steyr is Austria's 12th most populated town and the 3rd largest town in Upper Austria.
The Georgenberg Pact was a treaty signed between Duke Leopold V of Austria and Duke Ottokar IV of Styria on 17 August 1186 at Enns Castle on the Georgenberg mountain.
Ottokar IV, a member of the Otakar dynasty, was Margrave of Styria from 1164 and Duke from 1180, when Styria, previously a margraviate subordinated to the stem duchy of Bavaria, was raised to the status of an independent duchy.
The Otakars were a medieval dynasty ruling the Imperial March of Styria from 1056 to 1192.
The flag of Bohemia is a historic flag, which now forms part of the design in the modern flag of the Czech Republic. The flag, a horizontal bicolour, was based on the colours of the former monarchs of Bohemia.
The ducal hat of the Duchy of Styria is a jagged crown made out of silver-gilt. Believed to have been produced in the 15th century, it was refashioned with pearls and enameled in 1766.
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 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.
Garsten Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery located in Garsten near Steyr in Upper Austria. Since 1851, the former monastery buildings have accommodated a prison.
The March of Styria, originally known as Carantanian march, was a southeastern frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire. It was broken off the larger March of Carinthia, itself a march of the Duchy of Bavaria, around 970 as a buffer zone against the Hungarian invasions. Under the overlordship of the Carinthian dukes from 976 onwards, the territory evolved to be called Styria, so named for the town of Steyr, then the residence of the Otakar margraves. It became an Imperial State in its own right, when the Otakars were elevated to Dukes of Styria in 1180.
The Duchy of Styria was a duchy located in modern-day southern Austria and northern Slovenia. It was a part of the Holy Roman Empire until its dissolution in 1806 and a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary until its dissolution in 1918.
The black panther, also known as the Carantanian panther after the Medieval principality of Carantania, is a Carinthian historical symbol, which represents a stylized heraldic panther. As a heraldic symbol, it appeared on the coat of arms of the Carinthian Duke Herman II as well as of the Styrian Margrave Ottokar III. In this region it was most frequently imaged on various monuments and tombstones. The symbol can still be found in the coat of arms of the Austrian state of Styria, although the colours have changed. The symbol is also widely used within structures of the Slovenian security forces; namely by the Slovenian Armed Forces and the Slovenian Police. Since 1991, there have been several proposals to replace the Slovenian coat of arms with the black panther.
The Universalmuseum Joanneum is a multidisciplinary museum with buildings in several locations in the province of Styria, Austria. It has galleries and collections in many subject areas including archaeology, geology, paleontology, mineralogy, botany, zoology, history, art and folk culture. It is the oldest museum in Austria as well as the largest universal museum in central Europe with over 4.5 million objects in 13 departments and 12 locations in the Styrian cities of Graz, Stainz, Trautenfels, and Wagna. To reflect this status and its growth over the last two centuries, as well as to present a more recognizable image internationally, the Landesmuseum Joanneum was officially renamed to Universalmuseum Joanneum on 10 September 2009.
Herren von Graben, also named von (dem) Graben, vom Graben, Grabner, Graben von (zum) Stein, and ab dem Graben was the name of an old Austrian noble family.
Paula Grogger was an Austrian writer.
Raaba-Grambach is a market town in the district Graz-Umgebung in Styria, Austria since 2015. It was created as part of the Steiermärkische Gemeindestrukturreform of Styria at the end of 2014, dissolving the towns Raaba and Grambach. One complaint from both communities against merging was raised at the Constitutional Court but ended unsuccessfully.
The Mark an der Drau was a historical territory of the Holy Roman Empire and its predecessors during the Middle Ages. It came into being during the second half of the 10th century, covering an area from the eastern border of the Carolingian Carantanian Gaugrafschaft of Jauntal to Pettau in the territory of Friedau (Ormož). After 1147 it was attached to the Mark an der Mur forming the March of Styria/Carantania, which later gave rise to the Duchy of Styria. Other designations for the territory include Mark Pettau, Mark hinter dem Drauwald, Grafschaft hinter dem Drauwald, Marchia transsilvana/transsylvana, Pitouiensis, and untere Karantaner Mark.
Franz Krones Ritter von Marchland was an Austrian historian.