Pillar (heraldry)
The column is popular as a common figure in heraldry , as it symbolizes splendor and strength.
The use of the term for the stake , as it appeared in older descriptions of coats of arms, is incorrect. In the Spanish national coat of arms, there are two columns on the sides of the coat of arms . Here they are called the Pillars of Hercules .
The column is represented with a base and capital in the coat of arms. Occasionally it is a crown placed and when crowned described . In older coats of arms it was used as a helmet ornament . Since they looked similar to the pointed hats there, they were wrongly described as such. It has entered heraldry as a pointed column on the helmet .
Due to family ties between the Italian Colonna family and the Henneberg family (Count von Henneberg), the column was included in the Saxon coat of arms in 1559 after the house died out.
The column is particularly common in the Dutch coats of arms.
Examples
Three columns with heads adorned in the coat of arms of Millstatt am See
literature
- ↑ Gert Oswald : Lexicon of Heraldry. VEB Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1984.
