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Bihać (Municipality, Una-Sana Canton, Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Flag of Bihać - Image by Željko Heimer, 17 June 2009

Presentation of Bihać
Flag of Bihać
Coat of arms of Bihać

See also:

Presentation of Bihać

Bihać is the capital of Una-Sana Canton. It was first mentioned in 1260 as a property of the Topusko, Croatia church. The town was granted free town status in 1262, but was transferred to the mighty Frankopan family in the 14th century; in the 16th century, it was placed under Royal rule, soon to fall under the Ottomans in 1592, where it was the seat of a sanjak. The old town walls were torn down in 1888, after administration by Austria-Hungary since 1878. In 1942, Bihać was the seat of the first session of AVNOJ - the provisional Parliament and governemnt of liberated Yugoslavia.

Željko Heimer, 3 June 2011

Flag of Bihać

The symbols of Bihać are prescribed by Decision Odluka o upotrebi grba i zastave Općine Bihać, adopted by the Municipal Assembly and published in the Municipal official gazette Službeni glasnik Općine Bihać, No. 5.
The symbol are described in the Municipal Statutes (text), adopted on 30 June 2008 and published in Službeni glasnik Općine Bihać, No. 9.

The flag (photo, photo of the table flag) is described as follows:

The flag is made with height to width ratio of 1:2. It is horizontally divided in three fields, blue, white and green, with proportions 2:6:2 as per height of the flag.
The coat of arms covers the central part of the flag and it is 0.7 of the height of the flag. The upper field of the flag is blue as the shield. The bottom field of the flag is light green like the central part of the coat of arms of the municipality.

The colors of the flag and arms are the same as for Una-Sana Canton.

Aleksandar Nemet, Ivan Sarajčić & Željko Heimer, 3 June 2011

Coat of arms of Bihać

Coat of arms of Bihać - Image by Željko Heimer, 22 May 2004

The coat of arms of Bihać is "Azure a fort with a flag atop argent over a wavy bar and in chief a white rosette and a yellow five-pointed star".

Bihać is one of the few towns in Bosnia and Herzegovina to have its own historical coat of arms originating back to the heraldical period. A seal from the 14th century is preserved as well as its transformation into a coat of arms in the 16th century (images).
The coat of arms is shown in colors in Valvasor's Armorial of 1689 and, following it, in in Laszowski's Grbovi Jugoslavije [lsv39]: Azure raising from a base vert a three-towered fort with pointed roofs, from the central one hoisted on a staff in bend sinister a swallow-tailed flag gules. Reintroduced after 1878, the coat of arms may have been used in some form in the Socialist period. The modern arms are based on it, with elements added in chief. The white rosette is said to stand as a "symbol of tolerance in the changing cultures though history", while the yellow stars stands for the "modern heritage and orientation of the town".

The Populari database does not list any municipal symbol that would have been used prior to the 1990s or during the war period. The constitutionality of the current symbol was not disputed.

Željko Heimer & Pascal Gross, 3 June 2011