Last modified: 2015-05-14 by ivan sache
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![[Town flag]](../images/h/hr-pn-pu.gif)
Flag of Pula - Image by Željko Heimer, 18 April 2013
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The municipality of Pula (Italian, Pola; 58,594 inhabitants in 2001; 7,000 ha), while not the capital of the Istria County, is its largest town and urban center, situated at the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula.
The town was settled in the Roman times, that is more than obvious by the huge well-preserved arena dominating the town's landscape. In modern times, it began it growth in importance when the Austrian started using the port for naval purposes; ship-building and military-related industry started there in the 18th century.
Željko Heimer, 22 February 2004
The symbols of Pula are prescribed by Decision Odluka o grbu i zastavi Grada Pule, adopted on 12 November 1993 by the Town Assembly and published in the Town's official gazette Službene novine Grada Pule, No. 9, pp. 343-346. This invalidates the previous Decision Odluka o uporabi i načinu zaštite grba i zastave Opčine Pula, published in 1992 in Službene novine Grada Pule, No. 9. The Decision was amended (procedural and penal prescriptions) as Odluka o izmjenama i dopunama Odluke o grbu i zastavi Grada Pule, adopted on 3 August 2000 and published in Službene novine Grada Pule, No. 6, pp. 105-106.
The symbols are briefly described in the Town Statutes Statut Grada Pule (pročišćeni tekst), adopted on 7 November 2006 and published on 8 November 2006 in Službene novine Grad Pule, No. 9. This is repeated in the current Town Statutes Statut Grada Pula - Pola, adopted on 14 July 2009 and published on 15 July 2009 in Službene novine Grad Pule / Bollettino ufficiale della Città di Pola, No. 7.
Decisions Plan i raspored lokacija za postavu zastava na javnim površinama na području Grada Pule, adopted on 4 October 2007 and published on 31 OCtober 2007 in Službene novine Grada Pule, No. 12 (text), p. 314, and Odluka o isticanju i održavanju zastava na području Grada Pule, adopted on the same day and published in the same source, pp. 314-315, prescribe the locations and dated flags should be hoisted in the town. A set set of four flags is to be displayed: Croatia, the Istrian County, the Town of Pula and the Italian national minority.
The flag is described in Article 10 of the aforementioned Decision, as follows.
The flag of the Town of Pula is a green rectangle charged with a golden (yellow) Latin cross. The cross' beams are touching the flag's edges. The ratio of the flag's length to height is 2:1 (10:5 units). The width of the beams of the cross is 1 unit. The vertical beam of the cross is placed 3 units from the hoist. The horizontal beam of the cross is placed 2 units from the top and the bottom edge of the flag.
The colours are specified as HKS 57K (green) and HKS 4K (yellow).
Željko Heimer, 18 April 2013
![[Town coat of arms]](../images/h/hr)pn-pu.gif)
![[Town coat of arms]](../images/h/hr)pn-pu1.gif)
Coat of arms of Pula, regular and ceremonial versions - Images by Željko Heimer, 18 April 2013
The coat of arms (municipal website) is described in Article 7 of the aforementioned Decision, as follows.
The coat of arms of the town is the historical coat of arms of the Town of Pula.
The coat of arms of the Town of Pula is a green shield charged with golden (yellow) Latin cross. The cross' beams are touching the shield's edges. The ratio of the shield's width to height is 5:6 units. The width of thebeams of the cross is 1 unit. The horizontal beam of the cross is placed 2 units from the top edge of the shield. The vertical beam of the cross is placed 2 units from the left and right edges of the shield.
For ceremonial, official use, the coat of arms is displayed on a Renaissance shield of special design (the corners, the centre of the top edge and the bottom are pointed), bordered and at the top ornamented with side curls and central stylized lily flower connected with the cross with a white ribbon on a postament, in accordance with the attached graphical depictions, which are integral parts of this Decision.
An example of a separate document depicting these coats of arms is to be preserved in the State archives.
The website of the "Italian Commune of Pula in Exile" provides a short history of the coat of arms, based on "a report" by Camillo De Franceschi, an Istrian historia and political irredentist who exiled in 1945 in Italy. Pula was ruled by the local nobility family of Castropola (County of Pola), which used "Barry gules and argent a bordure chequy of the same". After their deposition in 1331, Pula did not use any particular emblem other than the Venetian lion until the early 1800s. Starting October 1807, a seal showing an oval coat of arms with a cross throughout was used in the Napoleonic period, but its colours were not recorded. It was only in 1846 that the green shield with a golden cross was finally confirmed, topped with a mural crown surrounded with initials C.P. (Citta di Pola). Ströhl (Städte-Wappen von Ö-U, 1904) [stl04] shows the same coat of arms, referring to its antiquity. At that time a Laubkrone (trefoiled crown) was used atop the shield.
The coat of arms from the pre World War II Italian rule period had a typical civic crown, oak and laurel branches, and a tricolour ribbon. This was abandoned after the war. From ca. 1958 until ca. 1969 a new shape of was used, made of a blue Samnit's shield within a border of white rope; a white representation of the Arena, in front of it a golden bow of a cargo ship in construction with a golden crane to its dexter and a red five-pointed star in the sinister corner.
Željko Heimer, 18 April 2013
![[Town flag]](../images/h/hr-pn-pu6.gif)
![[Town coat of arms]](../images/h/hr)pn-pu6.gif)
Former flag and arms of Pula - Images by Željko Heimer, 22 February 2004
After the Second World War, the town used a blue flag with the coat of arms in the middle.
The coat of arms was a blue shield with a white representation of the arena, waves in the base and a red five-pointed star in the upper sinister corner. I believe that these symbols were adopted in the late 1960s or early 1970s and abandoned in the early 1990s. A half a dozen of stone carved coat of arms of this period, together with some older ones, which were put before mostly above the entrances of public buildings, are preserved in the Pula Museum, located in the fort atop a hill in the middle of the town.
Željko Heimer, 22 February 2004
The flag was also used vertically, as shown on a photo made locally on 5 July 1986 by the late Anton Jansen, editor of Vlaggen [vlg].
Jan Mertens, 6 September 2010
![[UP flag]](../images/h/hr@uljan.gif)
Burgee of Sailing Club "Uljanik Plovidba" - Image by Željko Heimer, 4 July 2001
The burgee of the club (website) is a dark blue triangular pennant defaced with a white disk containing the emblem of the Uljanik shipyard.
Uljanik is a big company built around a shipyard in Pula, to which the club is connected. The year of the establishing of the shipyard, 1856, is written in the middle of the emblem.
Željko Heimer, 4 July 2001
