Coat of arms of Romania
Encyclopedia : C : CO : COA : Coat of arms of Romania
|
|
|
|
The Coat of Arms of Romania was adopted in Romanian Parliament on 10 September, 1992 as a representative coat of arms for Romania. It is based on the Lesser Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Romania (used between 1922 and 1947). As a central element it shows a golden eagle holding a cross in its beak and a sceptre and a sword in its claws. It also consists of the three colors; red, yellow, and blue which represent the colors found on the National Flag.
The shield surmounting the eagle is divided in five fileds, one for each historical province of Romania, with its traditional symbol:
- golden eagle - Wallachia
- auroch - Moldavia
- dolphins - Dobrogea
- a black eagle, seven castles, a sun and a moon - Transylvania
- lion and a bridge - Oltenia and Banat
The heraldic commission set up to design a new coat of arms for Romania worked intensely, subjecting to Parliament two final designs which were then combined. What emerged is the current design adopted by the two chambers of Romania’s Parliament in their joint session of September 10, 1992.
Romania’s coat of arms has as a central element the golden eagle with cross. Traditionally, this eagle appears in the arms of the Argeş county, the town of Piteşti and the town of Curtea de Argeş. It stands for the “nest of the Basarabs,” the nucleus around which Wallachia, was organised, the province that determined the historical fate of the whole Romania.
The eagle, being the symbol of Latinity and a heraldic bird of the first order, symbolises courage, determination, the soaring toward great heights, power, grandeur. It is to be found also in Transylvania’s coat of arms.
The shield on which it is placed is azure, symbolising the sky. The eagle holds in its talons the insignia of sovereignty: a sceptre and a saber, the latter reminding of Moldavia’s ruler, Stephen the Great (1456-1504), also called “Christ’s athlete” whereas the sceptre reminds of Michael the Brave (1593-1601), the first unifier of the Romanian Countries. On the bird’s chest there is a quartered escutcheon with the symbols of the historical Romanian provinces (Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, Banat and Crişana) as well as two dolphins reminding of the country’s Black Sea Coast.
In the first quarter there is again Wallachia’s coat of arms on azure: an eagle or holding in its beak a golden Orthodox cross, accompanied by a golden sun on the right and a golden new moon on the left.
In the second quarter there is Moldavia’s traditional coat of arms, gules: an auroch head sable with a mullet of or between its horns, a cinquefoil rose on the dexter and a waning crescent on the sinister, both argent.
The third quarter features the traditional coat of arms of Banat and Oltenia, gules: over waves, a golden bridge with two arched openings (symbolising Roman emperor Trajan’s bridge over the Danube), wherefrom comes a golden lion holding a broadsword in its right forepaw.
The fourth quarter shows the coat of arms of Transylvania with Maramureş and Crişana: a shield parted by a narrow fesse, gules; in the chief, on azure, there is an eagle sable with golden beak coming out of the fesse, accompanied by a golden sun on the dexter and a crescent argent on the sinister; on the base, on or, there are seven crenellated towers, placed four and three.
Also represented are the lands adjacent to the Black Sea, on azure: two dolphins affronts, head down.
See also
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.