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![[Municipal flag]](../images/h/hr-vz-bt.gif)
Flag of Beretinec - Image by Željko Heimer, 13 February 2003
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The Municipality of Beretinec (2,288 inhabitants in 2001, 1,54 in the village of Beretinec) is located some 10 km south-west of Varaždin.
Željko Heimer, 13 February 2003
The symbols of Beretinec are prescribed by Decision Odluka o izmjeni Odluke o opisu i uporabi grba i zastave Općine Beretinec, adopted on 31 July 1997 by the Municipality Assembly and published on 10 December 1998 in the County official gazette Službeni vjesnik Varaždinske županije, No. 22.
The Decision supersedes the previous, unpublihsed Decision Odluka o opisu i uporabi grba i zastave Općine Beretinec, adopted on 6 September 1994. Whether that Decision already prescribed the very same symbols is unclear, but I doubt - the new Decision looks like the simplification of a previous design, made upon request of the central authorities.
The symbols are described in the Municipality Statutes Statut Općine Beretinec, adopted on 9 October 2001 and published in Službeni vjesnik Varaždinske županije, No. 20. This was repeated in Statut Općine Beretinec, adopted on 27 January 2006 and published on 28 January 2006 in Službeni vjesnik Varaždinske županije, No. 2, in Statutes Statut Općine Beretinec, adopted on 13 July 2009 and published on 14 July 2009 in Službeni vjesnik Varaždinske županije, No. 20, and in the current Statutes Statut Općine Beretinec, adopted on 15 March 2013 and published on 29 March 2013 in Službeni vjesnik Varaždinske županije, No. 17 (text).
The symbols were designed by Krunoslav Čolo from Varaždin, who designed a number of coats of arms in the region (for instance, Cestica and Vidovec) and has been an active heraldic author in the 1990s.
The flag is prescribed as follows:
... in proportions (height to length) 1:2, green. In the middle of the flag is the coat of arms of the Municipality of Beretinec. The coat of arms is made according to the pattern and the heraldic description in heraldic colours.
Unlike the flag described (and displayed in the building of the Varaždin County in Varaždin), the flag hoisted on the Municipality Hall (photo) has the coat of arms offset to the hoist.
Željko Heimer, 19 February 2015
![[Municipal coat of arms]](../images/h/hr)vz-bt.gif)
Coat of arms of Beretinec - Image by Željko Heimer, 9 July 2004
The coat of arms is prescribed as follows:
Heraldic description of the coat of arms:
On a red background, in the centre of the field, a golden hedgehog turned to the right.Literary description of the coat of arms:
The coat of arms of the Municipality of Beretinec depicts a golden hedgehog on a red background.
The hedgehog, as the symbol of the Municipality of Beretinec, is chosen due to its well-known characteristics, diligence, care for its home and its family, defence of its home even unto the price of its life. Nevertheless, it is a calm and secretive inhabitant of our woods. These characteristics may be shorty expressed with the folk saying "others [we do] not want, ours [we shall] not yeald"*. Besides, the hadgehog is, as we know, a woodlands animal and is unable to live witout the woods, so it may serve as an indirect symbol of healthy and unpolluted environment. With this views one may consider the hedgehog as a symbol of ecology.
Except this "naturally determined" depiction of the hedgehog in the coat of arms of the Municipality of Beretinec, there is also a historical justification. Namely, Dragutin Antolek Orešek, who owned the lands in Beretinec, is mentioned as the first journalist of Varaždin, as an Illyrian activist, and as a fighter against Germanization, which resulted in issuing the satirical journal Podravski jež [Podravina Hedgehog]. In the journal, Antolek criticized Germans and Germanization with a series of illustrations and sharp satirical texts, so that he was for that prosecuted. Besides the political activity he was also standing out in the cultural life of the region, so by his labor the singing society Vila was established in Varaždin in 1875.
Considering it all, we may say that the hedgehog on the coat of arms of the Municipality of Beretinec indicates the honest, hard-working and ecologically conscious people, being characteristics that are today quite respectable in Croatia and in the world.
*This "motto" (Tuđe nečemo, svoje ne damo) was known as a saying by Marshal Tito in 1944 on the island of Vis, regarding the Treaty of Rapallo that had granted in 1920 large parts of the eastern Adriatic coast and islands to Italy, claiming them back to Croatia and Slovenia. For what I am aware, there is no such folk saying recorded prior to this use. It seems, however, that the motto is used in the description without any reference to Tito and certainly not the Adriatic.
Željko Heimer, 8 February 2015
![[Municipal flag]](../images/h/hr-vz-bt97.gif)
![[Municipal coat of arms]](../images/h/hr)vz-bt97.gif)
Proposed flag and arms of Beretinec - Image by Željko Heimer, 19 February 2015
The Ministery approval states that "the Commission found
the coat of arms design acceptable as a
whole, the design of the proposed flag was found unacceptable in the
petroleum colour, as it should be expressely herladically green", and
that, eventually, "the Mayor sent to the Ministry, on 10 November
1998, a depiction of the flag in heraldically green colour", and thus
the design was approved.
The municipal administration kindly communidcated a set
of drawings differing somewhat from the finally adopted, approved and
nowadays used designs. Namely, the coat of arms is there shown in a
rectangular shield, edged with a golden line, and set in
a kind-of-green flag that might easily be the mentioned "petroleum"
colour.
Željko Heimer, 19 February 2015
The former symbols of Beretinec were prescribed by Decision Odluka o opisu i uporabi grba i zastave Općine Beretinec, adopted on 7 September 1994 by the Municipality Council and published on 26 September 1994 in Službeni vjesnik Županije Varaždinske, No. 12.
There is no indication so far whether these symbols were ever actually
used.
The symbols are decribed in Article 8, as follows:
Heraldic description of the coat of arms: The Baroque shield of the coat of arms is divided horizontally in two fields. In the top field of blue colour, from a green hill a building of a Baroque castle raises. Above the castle from blue area there emerge two silver stars. In the bottom field of red colour four crossing wheat ears embrace a golden bunch of grapes.
Literary description of the coat of arms: In the top field it dominates a depiction of the Baroque castle Šaulovec; the facade of the castle being shown, which was erected in 1791 by Antun Kiss, nobility judge of Varaždin County, and upgraded and refurbished in the Historicism style in 1902 by Karlo Kiss and his wife Ana born Prelog. The castle is today a cultural monument and mark of the cultural-historical identity of the Municipality of Beretinec. The castle raises from a green hill, symbolizing the part around the castle, established in the late 18th century and today protected as a monument of garden architecture. The silver stars are elements taken from the family arms of Kiss de Savlovcz. The family provided a number of eminent people in the political and public life of Varaždin County and left indelible trace in the history of the area. The blue background of the top field is the colour of blue skies. The red color of the background of the bottom field, as fire and blood, is closely linked to the priciple of life. From such a background there emerge four crossing golden ears and a golden bunch of grapes as symbols of agriculture, viticulture and pomiculture of the region. The bunch of grapes is also a symbol of abundance, and a fruit of diligent human work, as such also symbol of all gifts that God presents to people. Beneath the shield is inscribed year "1236", denoting the oldest mention of the region. For the official use, the coat of arms without the sash with the year is used.Description of the flag: The flag of the Municipality of Beretinec is rectangular in shape, and the ratio of its length to width is 2 towards 1. In the centre of the blue field framed with a golden ribbon there is on the obverse and the reverse the coat of arms of the Municipality of Beretinec.
Željko Heimer, 19 February 2015
