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Postojna (Municipality, Slovenia)

Flag of Postojna, horizontal and vertical versions, ratio 2:5 - Images by Željko Heimer, 29 September 2006

Flag of Postojna, horizontal and vertical versions, ratio 1:2 - Images by Željko Heimer, 29 September 2006

Table and ceremonial(?) flag of Postojna - Images by Željko Heimer, 29 September 2006

Presentation of Postojna
Municipal flag of Postojna
Emblem of Postojna
Former flag and emblem of Postojna
Coat of arms of Postojna

See also:

Presentation of Postojna

Postojna had the municipality status before the 1990s.

Željko Heimer, 24 January 2000

Municipal flag of Postojna

The flag and arms of Postojna are prescribed by Decision Odlok o simbolih Občine Postojna (text), adopted on 13 September 2005 and published on 21 October 2005 in the official Slovene gazette Uradni list Republike Slovenije, 93/2005.

The flag is Bordeaux red with the municipal emblem placed near the hoist. The proportions of the flag are not stated in the decision; the material provided on the municipal website gives two versions with proportions 1:2 and 2:5, the latter being the prefered one, seemingly. The text of the Decision states that the "horizontal flags may be used as well if necessary" - so the two versions exist in yet two proportion variants.
The document from the municipal website also shows a fifth variant, being called a table flag, in which the background of the flag is "watermarked" with the eagle and the proteus outlined in black and enlarged to the whole flag, and white inscription OPČINA/POSTOJNA below the symbol.
The Decision printed in the official gazette shows a sixth version of the flag, not found in the document from the municipal website, a vertical flag in proportions 2:5 with a simple monocoloured background, but with the white inscription.

Željko Heimer, 29 September 2006

Emblem of Postojna

Emblem of Postojna - Image by Željko Heimer, 8 March 2004

The emblem of Postojna is made of a shield divided per fess azure and gules, overall an eagle displayed argent, in base per chevron embowed argent a proteus proper. Bordered or and crowned with mural crown argent.
The Decision retains the provision of the 1993 Decision on the coat of arms, which is still the one granted in 1909. The new artistic redention of the emblem is now much closer to the original 1909 design - having a more heraldic depiction of the eagle, the crown being now properly argent and masoned, the blue shade being closer to the light blue used in the original 1909 grant of arms.

Proteus or olm (Proteus anguinus; in German, Grottenolm) is an endemic spieces of Amphibians (in Slovenian, it is literally called "human fish") living in everlasting darkness of karst caves. It is the symbol of a huge cave system that has opening in Postojna. Its proper color is very light pinkish.

Željko Heimer, 29 Septembre 2006

According to the website of the Lausanne Zoology Museum (Switzerland), the story tells that the head of the post office of Vrhnika once went on trout fishing in the source of the Lintvern river (located today in the municipality of Logatec, photo). The source was famous for its very irregular flow, swiftly increasing from a few to more than one thousand liters per second without any "natural" cause. Local people claimed that the source was supplied in water by an undergroud lake inhabited by a dragon; when the dragon frisked, the lake overflew and water gushed fourth in the surface. Modern hydrologists call this a karstic intermittent source. Eager to catch trouts, the Vrhnika postman removed a few rocks to increase the source flow and was rewarded with the discovery of a baby dragon, that is an olm.

Darren Nash recalls that the legend of the baby dragons from Lintvern was peddled by Valvasor in his famous compilation, The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola (1689). Valvasor made the incorrect assumption (wise, but too good to be true!) that the name Lintvern was related with the German word Lindwurm, "a dragon". Later on, the Italian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (1723-1788) captured live olms in Idrija; the Austrian naturalist Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti (1735-1805), considered as the founder of herpetology (reptilia science), named the beast Proteus anguinus in 1768.
The Ljubljana dragon may also be related with the olm; it was "originally" captured by Jason in the marshes spreading between Vrhnika and Ljubljana.

Ivan Sache, 9 October 2010

Former flag and emblem of Postojna

Former flag, horizontal and vertical versions, and emblem of Postojna - Images by Željko Heimer, 8 March 2004

The former flag and emblem of Postojna were prescribed by Decision Odlok o simbolih občine Postojna, adopted on 18 March 1993 and published in the official Slovene gazette Uradni list Republike Slovenije, 18/1993.

The flag is described as follows:
The flag is white, bordered with red rectangle triangles. On the flag is the emblem of the municipality.
The flag is in proportions 1:2 with 6 x 12 full "white teeth" and the coat of arms offset apparently 1/6 of the hoist from the center.

The former vertical flag of Postojna is shorter, lacking the borders along the top, in proportions 6 x 9.5 white triangles (ie. 12:19), with the emblem in the middle.

The former emblem of Postojna had been in use at least since the 1980s. It is made of a shield divided per fess azure and gules, overall an eagle displayed argent, in base per chevron embowed argent a proteus proper. Bordered or and crowned with mural crown or.
In the aforementioned Decision, the emblem is named "emblem" or "symbol" (znak), and the entire paragraph reads:
The emblem of the municipality is the simplified coat of arms. It is shield-shaped, divided into three coloured fields. The shape of the eagle, the crown with three windows (sic) and the proteus are simplified. The ornamental border of the shield is omitted.

Željko Heimer, 13 May 2006

Coat of arms of Postojna

Coat of arms of Postojna - Image from the Postojna municipal website, 23 September 2002

The municipal arms of Postojna were granted by Emperor Franz Joseph I on 9 May 1909. At the same time the town of Postojna was given its civic status.
The coat of arms of Postojna is blazoned in the original grant (in Slovene, my translation) as "Per fess azure and gules, overall an eagle displayed argent beaked and membered or and langued gules, in base per chevron embowed argent a Proteus proper, bordered with a bronze ornament and crowned with a silver mural crown with five visible embattlements".

Željko Heimer, 23 September 2002