Čakovec (Town, Međimurje County, Croatia)

Last modified: 2020-12-03 by ivan sache
Keywords: cakovec |
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Flag of Čakovec, left, as used, right, as prescribed - Images by Željko Heimer, 6 May 2014

• Presentation of Čakovec
• Flag of Čakovec
• Coat of arms of Čakovec
• Symbols of Čakovec, 1996-2009
• Symbols of Čakovec, 1993-1996
• Polytechnic of Međimurje in Čakovec (Međimursko veleučilište u Čakovcu)
• Flag of Čakovec (Csáktornya), 1941-1945

See also:

• Croatia
• Međimurje County (Croatia)
• Croatia: Local flags

Presentation of Čakovec

The Town of Čakovec (30,455 inhabitants in 2001, 15,790 in the town of Čakovec) is the capital of the Međimurje County.

Željko Heimer, 12 August 2001

Flag of Čakovec

The flag of Čakovec is prescribed by the amended Decision I>Odluka o izmjeni i dopuni Odluke o zastavi Grada Čakovca, adopted on 8 July 1996 by the Town Assembly. This was repeated, together with the description of the coat of arms in the Town Statutes Statut Grada Čakovca, adopted on 9 July 2009 by the Town Assembly and published on 10 July 2009 in the Town official gazette Službeni glasnik Grada Ćakovca, No. 9 (text), and in the consolidated Town Statutes Statut Grada Čakovca (pročišćeni tekst), adopted on 17 April 2013 by the Town Assembly and published on 18 April 2013 in Službeni glasnik Grada Ćakovca, No. 3 (text).

The flag is prescribed as blue with the coat of arms of the Town of Čakovec, bordered in yellow, in the centre. However, the flags in actual use have a white border around the coat of arms.

Željko Heimer, 6 May 2014

Coat of arms of Čakovec

Coat of arms of Čakovec - Image by Željko Heimer, 30 August 2009

The coat of arms of Čakovec is prescribed by Decision Odluka o grbu Grada Čakovca (text), adopted on 9 July 2009 by the Town Assembly and published on 10 July 2009 in the Town official gazette Službeni glasnik Grada Čakovca, No. 9.
The Decision more or less consolidates the earlier Decisions, depicting a drawing of th coat of arms different only in very minor details different from the design adopted in 1993.

The coat of arms is "Azure issuant from base a massoned wall embattled and with a tower argent between two mullets or."
According to Bojničić [bjn99a], the coat of arms of Čakovec is actually the arms of the Ernusth de Csáktornya family, lords of Čakovec since the 15th century. In the 16th century the family, its estates and also its coat of arms was inherited by the Zrinski family, who marshalled the coat of arms in their own. The arms are canting, as the most probable origin of the name Csáktornya is "Csaky's Tower", after Count Dimitry Csaky, high magistrate and Palatine on the Court of King Bela IV in the 14th century.
Ströhl (Städte-Wappen von Ö-U, 1904) [stl04] shows an almost to the line identical drawing of the arms of Čakovec; Laszowski's Coffee Hag album of 1939 [lsv39] shows it slightly different, adding red roofs above the embattllemnts on each side of the tower. It also mentions that the coat of arms is based on a seal dated 1596.

Željko Heimer, 6 May 2014

Symbols of Čakovec, 1996-2009

Flag of Čakovec, left and middle, as used, right, as prescribed - Images by Željko Heimer, 6 May 2014

The flag of Čakovec is prescribed in the amended Decision Odluka o izmjeni i dopuni Odluke o zastavi Grada Čakovca, adopted on 20 March 1996 by the Town Assembly.
The flag was approved on 7 July 1996 by the Ministry of Administration. This must be the only cas of distinct approvals for the flag and arms of the same municipality.
The Town Assembly adopted on 8 July 1996 a new amended Decision I>Odluka o izmjeni i dopuni Odluke o zastavi Grada Čakovca.

The flag is described in Article 4 of the amended Decision as follows:

The flag of the town is rectangular in shape, in proportions 1:2, coloured blue. In the centre of the flag is set the coat of arms of the Town of Čakovec, in height 4/8 of the flag width, distant from the edges of the flag by 2/8 of the flag's width. The colours and the width o the coat of arms are defined with the Regulations on standardization of the coat of arms of the City of Čakovec [see below]. The coat of arms in the flag is bordered with a yellow-golden outline line.
The ceremonial flag is made of double sewed high glossy material, edged with golden ribbon with knit fringe.
A copy of a special document showing the flag and the original of the flag is preserved in the archives.

On the flags in actual use, the coat of arms was bordered in white instead of yellow as prescribed.

Coat of arms of Čakovec - Image by Željko Heimer, 12 August 1996

Željko Heimer, 6 May 2014

Symbols of Čakovec, 1993-1996

Former symbols of Čakovec - Images by Željko Heimer, 2 October 2011

The former flag of Čakovec is prescribed by Decision Odluka o zastavi Grada Čakovca, adopted on 28 October 1994 by the Town Assembly and published on 4 November 1994 in the County official gazette Službeni glasnik Županije Međimurske, No. 6.
The flag was rejected on 17 July 1995 by the Ministry of Administration.

The flag is described in Article 4 of the Decision as follows:

The flag of the Town is rectangular in shape; in the ratio 1650:900. Next to the hoist is a border coloured white-silver of width 50, followed by a field of blue with two regular six-pointed stars coloured golden-yellow and a field of white-silver, each of width 800. In the blue field, the centre of the stars is in the crossing point of the diagonals of the half of the field, while the vertices of the stars are in a radius of 125.
The colours are identical to those prescribed by the Regulations on standardization of the coat of arms of the Town of Čakovec.
The ceremonial flag is made of double-sewn highly glossy material, edged with a golden ribbon with knitted fringe.
A copy of a special document depicting the flag and an original of the flag are preserved in the archives.

The coat of arms of Čakovec is prescribed by Decision Odluka o grbu Grada Čakovca, adopted on 13 December 1993 by the Town Assembly and published on 31 December 1993 in Službeni glasnik Županije Međimurske, No. 3.

The coat of arms is described in Article 6 of the Decision as follows:

The coat of arms of the Town is the historical coat of arms in a shield shape. On the blue background of the shield are silver walls with embattled crenellations with the same tower. There is a rectangular opening in the tower. On both sides of the tower is a golden six-pointed star.

The coat of arms was approved on 29 December 1993 by the Ministry of Administration. This was prior to the establishment of the Heraldic Commission; the approval simply repeated the description from the Decision, referring to the opinion from the local museum and archives.

Željko Heimer, 6 May 2014

Polytechnic of Međimurje in Čakovec

Flag of the Polytechnic of Međimurje in Čakovec - Image by Tomislav Šipek, 11 June 2020

The flag of the Polytechnic of Međimurje in Čakovec is prescribed in its Statutes (text) as white with the institute's emblem.
The emblem's central element is the monument to Croatian ban (viceroy) Nikola VII Zrinski (1620-1664), a military leader and poet born in Čakovec, member of the Zrinski (Hungarian, Zrínyi) Croatian noble family, a cadet branch of the &Ax0160;ubi&#xOAO7;Croatian noble lineage.

Tomislav Šipek, 11 June 2020

Flag of Čakovec (Csáktornya), 1941-1945

Former flag of Čakovec - Image by António Martins, 28 February 2001

In April 1941, Hungary occupied Čakovec and annexed it in December. In April 1945 it lost it. The Treaty of Paris (1947) reallocated the town to Yugoslavia.

According to Széll (Városaink neve, címere és lobogója [szs41]), the former flag of Čakovec is vertically divided blue-white.
Széll's book shows the flags of several towns formerly held by Hungary. The book is our only source of these flags, but it is not clear as to what period these flags were used as claimed by the book. I doubt very much that they were used during the time of Austria-Hungary. It seems very much more like they were designed in 1941 - but it is not even clear weather the designs shown in Széll's book are just proposals or if they were ever prescribed in any formal way and after all whether they were used. At least for the moment, I believe that the former flag was in use at most in years 1941-1944.

Željko Heimer, 28 February 2001