Flags and coats of arms of the city and abbey of St. Gallen
The coats of arms of the city and the prince abbey of St. Gallen show an upright bear walking to the left (heraldic right) . Otherwise, the coats of arms can be clearly or less clearly differentiated from one another, depending on the epoch. The most common depiction of the abbey coat of arms shows the bear on a yellow background. A characteristic feature of the city's coat of arms is the golden collar, which clearly distinguishes it from similar ones, such as those of the two Appenzell.
In contrast to almost all other cantons that have taken their name from a city, the coat of arms of the canton of St. Gallen has nothing in common with that of the city.
Blazon
The official blazon of the city coat of arms, which is still in use today, is:
- Upright bear on a silver shield, the front paws raised heraldically to the right, with a gold collar, gold armor (claws, teeth, auricles, eyebrows), with a red tongue and a red gender symbol.
history
The upright walking bear is guaranteed as the coat of arms of the abbey of St. Gallen as early as the Middle Ages . It appears for the first time as a seal on a certificate from Abbot Hermann von Bonstetten in 1334. At this point there are no further additions. In even earlier images the bear appears walking on all fours.
The bear is one of the insignia of St. Gallus , the founder and patron saint of the city. Legend has it that Gallus ordered an unexpectedly appearing bear to throw wood into the fire. Afterwards, he received a loaf of bread as a reward, with instructions never to return to the Steinach . Since the bear is shown in attack position on the coat of arms, the connection with this legend is not absolutely certain, it could also be a loose reference to the Bernegg Fortress, which ruled the areas around the city. Together with the bread, the bear can sometimes be seen on the abbot's seals, but never on the city's coat of arms or on coins. In contrast, the bear is temporarily depicted with a block of wood in the coat of arms of the city's messengers in the 15th century.
The bear appears on a yellow background on the first drawings of the coat of arms in the 14th century. The city's coat of arms still shows the bear without any attributes. In the abbot's coins, the block of wood became common again in the 18th century. The abbey had already depicted the bear with the trunk of a tree in the previous centuries.
The coat of arms was given its definitive form after Friedrich III. on July 5, 1475, in gratitude for helping Charles the Bold with arms, allowed the city to put a "güldinn half-band around his neck" on the bear. Incidentally, the coat of arms of the city of St. Gallen was described in this diploma as follows: "is a white shield, inside of which stands upright a swartzer over with guldin kloen (claws) and with guldin augprawen (eyebrows), also with orenn gold." In 1512, both the city and the Old Landscape Abbey received a valuable " Julius banner " from Pope Julius II for the services they performed in the "Great Pavier Campaign" from 1508–1510 to expel the French.
Today's blazon corresponds to this diploma.
Banners and colors
abbey
In the background, the abbey's banner is already in yellow in the oldest surviving writings . The oldest effectively still preserved flag was presented to Abbot Gaisberg on July 24, 1512 in the name of the Pope to help with weapons in the Pavier War . It shows Gallus seated on yellow Milanese damask with the bear waiting for bread. Above the coat of arms of the Pope Julius II. Shown why this banner too, " Julius Banner is called."
Another preserved banner can be seen in the Historical Museum in Bern. Gallus with the bear can also be recognized on this red standard, captured during the Second Villmerger War .
However, the flag of the abbey remains the black bear in gold. The colors of the abbey were then also black and yellow . In the 18th century, for example, abbot military flags showed the abbey coat of arms in the center flamed yellow and black.
city
The oldest preserved city banner is in the State Museum. It was created around 1400 and shows the upright, black bear with a red tongue and a red mark on a white field. The claws were probably originally silver. Later the claws change color to gold, and the bear appears brownish. Sometimes the fur is even clearly shaggy in later depictions.
The banners used after 1475 now differ not only in the background color but also in that the bear now wears the gold collar. He is already depicted in this way in the city's Julius banner, together with the "Gregorian Man of Sorrows" and the insignia of Pope Julius II.
It is noticeable that later standards such as the Julius banner are increasingly becoming works of art, which is suitable for viewing up close, for use as a flag in a battle, where it should be reliably identified from a long distance, but is rather unsuitable.
In the 18th century, the city's flag adapted to the appearance of the other federal flags. It showed the city's coat of arms in the middle, a white federal cross at that time still continuous, flamed by the city colors black-white-red.
The colors of the city were officially set on August 20 and 31, 1943 (but were common before that). They are black , white and red .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Regulations on the city arms (PDF; 32 kB)
- ↑ Whereby this image on a coin cannot be assigned to St. Gallen with certainty.
- ^ Wording of the diploma from Friedrich III. at J. Dierauer in the city's New Year's Gazette, 1876, p. 19
- ↑ Winfried Hecht: The Julius banner of the town facing Rottweil. In: Der Geschichtsfreund: Messages from the Central Switzerland Historical Association . 126/7 (1973/4). doi : 10.5169 / seals-118647
- ↑ In this order, although heraldically the background color would actually come first. The reason for this is unknown.
- ↑ Mühlemann, Wappen und Fahnen, p. 111.
- ↑ Mühlemann, Wappen und Fahnen, p. 111.
literature
- Erwin Poeschel: The Art Monuments of the Canton of St. Gallen - The City of St. Gallen, first part ; Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel; 1957
- Louis Mühlemann: coat of arms and flags of Switzerland . Zurich 1980.