Flag and coat of arms of the Canton of Glarus

Coat of arms of the Canton of Glarus

Flag of the Canton of Glarus

The flag and the coat of arms of the canton of Glarus represent the messenger of faith Fridolin von Säckingen with a golden nimbus , staff and book on a red background.

The Glarus coat of arms is the only one of the 26 Swiss cantons that depicts a person. The status colors are red, black, white and red.

Fridolin, who lived in the sixth century, had a significant influence on the residents of the canton of Glarus: many of them became Christians. According to a legend, Fridolin was awarded a large part of the Glarnerland. Today, Fridolin is the patron saint of inheritance stealth in the canton of Glarus .

The city of Glarus has a different coat of arms than the canton named after it.

Blazon

The official blazon of the Glarus coat of arms reads:

« In red is Fridolin, the messenger of faith in black, striding to the right, with a bare-headed head with a golden halo facing the beholder, a golden staff in his right hand and a golden book in his left. »

history

The coat of arms of Glarus goes back to the battle of Näfels , where the people of Glarus fought under a Fridolin banner, as their old banner had been captured by the Rapperswilers . In the 15th and 16th centuries, the people of Glarus then used Fridolin's banner as a standard. The depiction of the saint could vary considerably, with or without a Bible or a halo, with a bishop's staff or with a simple pilgrim's staff. In his depiction of the Battle of Murten in the Zurich Chronicle (1480s), Diebold Schilling the Elder shows the Glarus banner with the saint in black, not unlike the modern coat of arms. The Lucerne Chronicle of 1513 shows the banner at the Battle of Nancy in a similar form, with an additional white cross as a standard, while at the Battle of Grandson it shows the figure of the saint in white.

The coat of arms was not given a fixed form until the 17th century, initially with a depiction of the saint as a pilgrim (not as a bishop) in white. Johann Siebmacher (1605) shows a silver pilgrim in a red field, with a pilgrim's staff and a pilgrim's badge on his hat and coat, but without a Bible or halo. Jacob August Franckenstein describes the coat of arms as a "shield, in the red field, a silver pilgrim, with a golden note around the head, in the right a golden pilgrim's staff, and in the left holding a golden book, because of St. Friedlin".

In the 19th century the saint was depicted in black again, probably in view of a banner exhibited in the Freuler Palace in Näfels, which is said to be identical to the one used in 1388. This is how it appears in the dome of the Bundestag building (around 1900). The current official form of the coat of arms dates back to 1959.

literature

• Louis Mühlemann: coat of arms and flags of Switzerland. 3. Edition. Bühler-Verlag, Lengnau 1991, ISBN 3-9520071-1-0 .

Web links

• Information on the coat of arms on the website of the Canton of Glarus

Individual evidence

1. ^ Description of the Glarus coat of arms , Canton Glarus
2. ↑ Canton Glarus on GenWiki, going back to Mühlemann, s. Bibliography
3. ↑ [1]