History of the Croatian Coat-of-Arms (Grb)

The coat-of-arms of the Republic of Croatia is a historical Croatian coat-of-arms in the shape of a shield. The checkered pattern has twenty five alternating red and white (argent) fields, so that the left upper corner of the shield is red. Above the shield is a crown with five peaks, which touches the sinister and the dexter chief (left and right upper ends) of the shield, bending in a slight arch.

The crown is divided into five smaller shields with historical Croatian coats-of-arms, in the following order, from left to right; the oldest Croatian coat-of-arms, then the coat-of-arms of the Dubrovnik Republic, Dalamatia, Istria and Slavonia.

The height of the smaller fields in the crown is 2.5 times the size of the fields in the main shield, while the width of both sets of fields are the same.

The oldest known Croatian coat-of-arms has a yellow (golden) six-pointed star and a white new moon on a blue shield.

The coat-of-arms of the Dubrovnik Republic has two red beams on a navy blue shield.

The Dalmatian coat-of-arms has three yellow crowned leopard heads on a blue shield.

The Istrian coat-of-arms has a yellow goat with red hoofs and horns facing left, on a navy blue shield.

The Slavonian coat-of-arms has two horizontal white beams on a blue shield. Between the beams there is a red field with a marten in motion facing left. There is a yellow six-pointed star in the chief blue field.

The entire coat-of-arms is trimmed by a red line.

The Croatian coat of arms was presented for the first time on the Habsburg genealogy of 1508-1512. It is believed that this coat of arms appeared even earlier than that. It was also found on a memorial taler of 1525 and on the seal of the Croatian Electoral Assembly in Cetina on January 1, 1527, when Ferdinand 1 was elected the King of Croatia.

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