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Ražanac (Municipality, Zadar County, Croatia)

Flag of Ražanac - Image by Željko Heimer, 21 August 2013

Presentation of Ražanac
Flag of Ražanac
Coat of arms of Ražanac
Ceremonial flag of Ražanac

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Presentation of Ražanac

The municipality of Ražanac (3,107 inhabitants in 2001, 1,002 in the village of Ražanac proper) is located about 20 km north-east of Zadar, on the coast of the Velebit Channel that enters deeply southwards in the middle of the eastern Adriatic coast.
The modern settlement was established in 1507 when the people descended towards the coast for easier defence against the Turks and begun building a fortrress. The fortress, destroyed by Turks in 1570, is nowdays ruined.

Željko Heimer, 8 June 2007

Flag of Ražanac

The symbols of Ražanac are prescribed by proposed Decision Prijedlog Odluke o opisu i uporabi grba i zastave Općine Ražanac, adopted on 27 September 2006 by the Municipality Assembly and published on 15 December 2006 in the County official gazette Službeni glasnik Zadarske županije, No. 16.
I guess that the Decision is titled "proposal" because the approval from the central authorities was still being waited upon. In any case, beside the title, there is no other hint that this is not a definitive Decision.
The symbols were approved by the Central Office for Administration in May 2007 (municipal website).
The symbols are prescribed (but not described) in the Municipality Statutes Statut Općine Ražanac, adopted on 28 July 2009 and published on 19 August 2009 in Službeni glasnik Zadarske županije, No. 16.

The symbols were designed by the Heraldic Art d.o.o. company from Rijeka.

The flag is in proportions 1:2, light blue with the coat of arms, bordered yellow (though not mentioned in the Decision), in the middle.

Željko Heimer, 25 April 2013

Coat of arms of Ražanac

Coat of arms of Ražanac - Image by Željko Heimer, 21 August 2013

The coat of arms is "Azure a tower embattled with a window and doors opened surrounded with eight bees or, 3 + 2 + 3".

The origin of the design of the coat of arms is the legend of a heroine named Nidićka.
During the War of Candia (also known as the Cretean War) in 1645, indeed the sixth Ottoman-Venetian War, the Dalmatian coast around Zadar, including Ražanac, was held by Venice and the Turks were not far away in the hinterland. The Bosnian pasha Ibrahim attacked Dalmatia, a few thousand soldiers marched towards Nin (Nona) where the main Christian forces in the area were gathered. Ražanac was fortified with a wall and surrounded by the sea (the fortress was already destroyed in 1570), although only local villagers could defend it - the Venetian Republic provided only 20 soldiers - however, the men (expect the 20 soldiers) were sent to enlarge the defence of Nin, so Ražanac was defended only by women and elderly people. A wing of the Turkish force, with some 700 horsemen, turned toward Ražanac and were confident that they shall conquer it quickly, noticing that it is defended by women mostly. A spirit of this odd female company emerged a very old woman Nidićka, who had no family and "nothing to loose" and she provided the leadership and spunk to others to fiercely defend the wall. However, less the 100 defenders had little chance against the Turks and soon it seemed that the Turkish victory was inevitable. However, the old Nidićka took a small group of women, they went to the fields to get the bee hives from there, cut them with axes and threw them into the kindled houses outside walls among the Turks. The bees thus attacked the Turks and their horses and they were forced to retreat.

Željko Heimer, 24 August 2009

Ceremonial flag of Ražanac

Ceremonial flag of Ražanac - Image by Željko Heimer, 21 August 2013

The ceremonial flag (photo, photo, photo, photo) is a light blue gonfalon with three triangularly ending tails with tassels, the coat of arms in the centre, the name of the municipality above and branches of olive and grapevine below.

Željko Heimer & Marko Vitez, 1 August 2012