FLAG OF KAUNA’S CITY

Very little is known about the old flags of Kaunas. A little more information has been preserved from the first half of the 20th century, when Kaunas was the provisional capital of the Republic of Lithuania. Thanks to a happy coincidence and the dedication of museum staff, the city flag of 1930 was preserved inthe Kaunas M.K. Čiurlionis Art Museum.

It is a red silk fabric 175 cm long and 148 cm wide, the three edges of which are trimmed with the national stripe, and the right free end of the flag is decorated with a silk thread stitching. The coat of arms of the City of Kaunas is embroidered on the main side of the flag, to the right of the stem. The armorial shield, decorated on the sides with yellow lily flowers, depicts a white cup standing on a green lawn with a yellow cross between its horns. Above the coat of arms it reads: ‘Kaunas City Municipality’ and below the coat of arms: “Hail independent and invisible Lithuania!”

On the other side of the flag, the coat of arms of the Republic of Lithuania is embroidered on the same shield: an armoured knight on a white horse, holding a sword raised above his head. The knight’s yellow shield bears a red double cross. The horse’s mane, bridle and other straps are yellow. Above the coat of arms, the inscription: ‘Being free, you will not renouncefreedom’, below the coat of arms: ‘Kaunas City Municipality’.

23 December 1993 The Kaunas City Council approved the continuation of the Kaunas Municipal flag used until 1940. On 19 April 1999, the new flag of Kaunas, designed by the artist A. Lapienis, was approved.

The flag of Kaunas city is a decirative (representative) flag kept in the office of the Mayor of Kaunas and a plain (outdoor) flag, which is used during celebrations, ceremonies, hoisted over the Municipality, City Hall, in front of the residential houses, etc.

THE BUNTING

It consists of a red cloth, 120 x 144 cm, with gold bands at the top and bottom along the flag. In the centre of the flag is the symbol of Kaunas, the Taurus, embroidered with silver thread. On the other side of the flag are the symbols of St Nicholas, the patron saint of the city, embroidered in silver thread in the centre of the flag: the bishop’s mitre, the letter ‘M’ and, at the bottom, the three spheres. On either side of the symbols, the words embroidered in gold -: Let us love justice. The flag is framed by a cord woven with gold and red thread. The top of the flagstaff is bronze. It depicts the head of Taurus with a cross. Two gold and red braided cords are attached to the top.

PLAIN FLAG

It consists of a red cloth measuring 102 x 155 cm, with yellow stripes on the upper and lower parts. On both sides of the flag is the symbol of Kaunas, the Taurus.

There are no strict rules on the use of the flag. Its purpose is to promote the city and its symbols among all Kaunas citizens and visitors.

COAT OF ARMSOF THE CITY OF KAUNAS

Kaunas is the only city of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania whose heraldic origins date back to the beginning of the 15th cetury, during the reign of Vytautas. The oldest seals of the city are the only iconographic sources that allow us to judge the coat of arms.

The first seal, which also symbolises the emergence of Kaunas city self-government, was created around 1400.

The oldest seal of the city was replaced by a coat-of-arms seal. The central part of this seal is a late Gothic armorial shield with a rounded bottom. It depicts a cup running along the shield to the right. This is not a mistake or a coincidence. This composition of the cout of arms is common in small seals of the 15th century, as it was easier to depict recumbent figures in such a way as to make them occupy as much of the field of the shield as possible and to make them clear. The coat of arms of the city is flanked by the Latin legend ‘The Seal of the City of Old Kaunas’ in Gothic lower case letters. It is interesting because it is the first and only time that the place name of Old Kaunas has been recorded in the city’s sphragistics. It was intended to distinguish Old Kaunas from New Kaunas. This name was given to the castle built by Duke Kęstutis of Trakai at the confluence of the Nemunas and Nevėžis rivers in the second half of the fourteenth century, which was destroyed by the Teutonic Knights in 1368, and a new castle, the Gotesverder Castle, was built in its place.

Town clerks changed the printing press when the old one wore out or disappeared during war or fire, when the town’s coat of arms changed, sometimes to mark the confirmation of self-government rights or the granting of new priveleges. 18 August 1492 Grand Duke Alexander of Lithuania confirmed the privelege granted to Kaunas by Kazimieras in 1463 and granted new priveleges and freedoms. Although, as was customary at the time, the privelege did not say a word about the city’s coat of arms or seal, it is likely that there was at least a verbal approval from the ruler for the addition of the equal-ended cross (also known as a knight’s cross) to the old symbolism.

On 17 July 1540, Žygimantas the Old, in the form of a privilege, issued a decision on the further management of the city after a long dispute between the Kaunas magistrate and the city’s chief executive. In the history of Kaunas in the 16th century, it was probably the most important legal act approved by the ruler of Lithuania, which regulated the court order, discussed administration and other urban matters. Since this seal appeared shortly after this decision, there can be no doubt that its ideological motives were discussed and sanctioned by the supreme authority. When the Kaunas Cup was solemnized by the initiative of Queen Bona, the Latin St. Casimir’s Day was celebrated. Hubert’s cross made it an extremely rare, if not the only, symbol of its kind in European city heraldry.

The Russian invasion of Lithuania, which began in 1655, lasted until 1661. The political upheaval of the country was accompanied by plague and famine. In Kaunas, the town hall was destroyed, churches and monasteries were robbed, and their property was taken to Russia. Since the old seal did not survive, it was created in a new way, using small seals.

In 1777, the magistrate decided that a new stamp would be produced, much larger and much more ornate. Introduced in 1779, it features a round coat-of-arms shield, framed with a rococo goulash, and a taurus-lifted foreleg indicating a return to a Gothic-style movement.

In 1801, the two-headed eagle of the Russian Empire appeared in the stamps of the magistrate and the smoke, an element previously unknown to the sfragistics of Kaunas city. He occupied the most important upper place in the seals, pushing down the city’s coat of arms, which had been in use for several hundred years. The reasons for the amendments are clear. The two-headed eagle was supposed to show that Kaunas belonged to the Russian state.

In 1843, the coat of arms of Kaunas became dominated by Russian merchandise. This coat of arms was not given to the city of Kaunas, but to the Governorate. The city could only use it. Since then, the Russian concept of the coat of arms, which did not differentiate between the coat of arms of the city and the ground, has finally taken root in Kaunas heraldry. This is one of the specific features of Russian heraldry, peculiar only to this state. The prototype of this coat of arms was a real monument, cast in 1843 in St. Petersburg, weighing 20,000 ponds and erected in Kaunas Town Hall Square.

On 2 May 1935, Kaunas City Council adopted a new coat of arms, created by the artist J. Burba. It is a rectangular, rounded-down coat of arms, the upper purple field of which depicts a standing white cup with a golden cross between the horns. The lower field or the base of the shield is gold, the same cup horns and nails. This coat of arms has been widely used in various areas of municipal and urban life.

In 1969, the coat of arms created by the artist V.Banis was approved. A triangular early Gothic coat of arms, with a larger upper field coloured red, depicts a white bison standing on a white stripe and facing the viewer. Kaunas residents welcomed the restoration of the historical coat of arms. It was decorated with city landmarks, transport, the production of coat of arms badges began, and the city’s coat of arms began to mark the products produced in Kaunas, as well as information and tourist publications. Thus, the coat of arms very quickly acquired and became an important part of the cultural life of the big city.

On 30 June 1993, by special decree of the President, the historical coat of arms of the city of Kaunas was approved as a benchmark: in a red shield, a white cup with a golden cross between the horns. It was the result of the long work of the Lithuanian Heraldry Commission, which was realized in the final result by the artist R.Miknevičius. Thus, the old symbol of Kaunas, Taurus, renamed with the Latin cross, was revived for a new life.

On 8 May 2008, the Lithuanian Heraldry Commission under the President of the Republic of Lithuania approved the standard of the Grand Coat of Arms.
Grand coat of arms: in a red panel with a black outline silver-coloured cup pointing to the left, with a gold-coloured cross between the horns; the coat of arms is surrounded by a skydiver, a gold-coloured sailboat sailing in silver; above the shield, in a central sail with silver contours in red, three gold-coloured balls are depicted; in the upper part of the coat of arms, in the golden band, the motto: DILIGITE JUSTITIAM QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM (Love righteousness rulers of the earth).

Based on Edmundas Rimša’s book “The Coat of Arms of Kaunas”.