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from <neris.mii.lt>
Coat of Arms adopted 20 September 1991.
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From neris
site:
The State Emblem - The state emblem of the Republic of
Lithuania is the Vytis (the White Knight). The heraldic shield
features a red field with an armoured knight on a white (silver)
horse holding a silver sword in his right hang above his head. A
blue shield hangs on the left shoulder of the charging knight
with a double gold (yellow) cross on it. The horse saddle,
straps, and belts are blue. The hilt of the sword and the
fastening of the sheath, the charging knight's spurs, the curb
bits of the bridle, the horseshoes, as well as the decoration of
the harness, are gold.
The charging knight is known to have been first used as the state
emblem in 1366. It is featured on the seal of the Grand Duke of
Lithuania, Algirdas, which marks a document belonging to that
year. The old prototype of the present Vytis depicts a knight on
horseback holding a sword in his raised hand. The symbol of the
charging knight on horseback was handed down through the
generations: from Algirdas to his son, Grand Duke Jogaila, then
to Grand Duke Vytautas and others. By the 14th century, the
charging knight on horseback with a sword had begun to be
featured in a heraldic shield, first in Jogaila's seal in 1386 or
1387, and also in the seal of Vytautas in 1401. As early as the
15th century, the heraldic charging knight on horseback became
the coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and of its
central part - the Duchy of Vilnius. 16th century documents refer
to it as Vytis (it is believed that the word Vytis was used in
the 15th century). At first, the charging knight was depicted
riding in one or the other direction and sometime held a lance.
But as of the first half of the 15th century, he is always shown
riding to the left (as see by the viewer) with a sword in his
raised hand and a shield in the left hand.
In the 15th century, the colours of the seal became uniform. The
livery colours became fixed: a white (silver) charging knight on
a red field of the heraldic shield. The shield of the charging
knight was blue then and set against the blue field was a double
(gold) cross. The coat of arms featured the grand duke's headgear
on the crest.
A first, the charging knight showed the figure of the ruler of
the country, but with time it came to be understood and
interpreted as that of a riding knight who was chasing an
intruder out of his native country. Such an understanding was
especially popular in the 19th century and the first half of 20th
century. The explanation has a sound historical foundation. It is
known that at the Zalgiris (Grunwald) battle, where the united
Polish-Lithuanian army crushed the army of the German Order, thus
putting an end to its expansion to the east, thirty Lithuanian
regiments out of the total forty were flying with the sign of the
Vytis.
With minor stylistic changes, the Vytis coat of arms remained the
state symbol of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania until 1795. When the
Lithuanian - Polish Commonwealth was formed in 1569, the Vytis
was featured on the state emblem alongside the Polish Eagle. As
time went by, the Vytis gained popularity and constituted part of
the coat of arms of most provinces and towns. It was widely used
in public life during festive ceremonies and so on. The Vytis
sign on the Ausros vartai (Ausros Gate) in the 16th century
defence wall of Vilnius, surviving to this day, was to signify
that Vilnius was the capital of Lithuania. The Byelorussians also
consider the Vytis to be their national emblem.
When Lithuania was annexed by Russian Empire in 1795, the Vytis
was incorporated into the imperial state emblem. Slightly
modified in 1845, it was used as the coat of arms of the city and
province of Vilnius. While restoring the independent Lithuanian
state in 1918-19, due care was taken to restore the state emblem
too. A special commission was set up to analyse the best 16th
century specimens of Vytis to design a state emblem. Only the
crest with the grand duke's headgear was rejected. The Vytis was
the state emblem of the Republic of Lithuania until 1940. When on
June 15, 1940 Lithuania was occupied and annexed by the Soviet
Union, the symbol of the Vytis came to be viewed as hostile to
the new authorities and its portrayal was punishable (during
Stalin's rule this could mean imprisonment or even deportation).
It was only in 1988, when a revival movement began in Lithuania,
that the Vytis was again legalized as a national symbol. As of
March 11, 1990 the Vytis is once again the official state emblem
and symbol of the Republic of Lithuania. On April 10, 1990 the
Supreme Council of Republic of Lithuania approved the description
of the state emblem and determined the principal regulations for
its use. On September 4, 1991, the old colours of the Vytis seal
were re-established.
Jarig Bakker, 2 October 1999
The Pursuit, as it is sometimes called, is perhaps the oldest
emblem of Lithuania, figuring in many ancient symbols and having
been the principal emblem on the obverse of the State Flag (1919
or 20 - 1940) and on the emblems of the Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom
Dave Martucci, 2 October 1999
From The Heraldry of Lithuania, Vol. 1, Vilnius 1998:
"The Lithuanian State Coat of Arms
Description - A mounted knight in silver armour, holding a raised
silver sword with a golden hilt above his head, on a field of
red. At his left shoulder, the knight carries a blue shield
charged with a golden double cross. The horse's bridle, leather
bands, saddle and short saddle-cloth are blue, its horseshoes,
bit, stirrup, metal buckles, and the rider's spur are golden.
Overview - Lithuania's knight, called the Vytis, is one of the
oldest State emblems in Europe and one of the few whose symbolism
was taken not from dynastic arms, as in the majority of European
countries, but from ducal portrait seals. It was not by chance
that in the beginning of the 16th C., a chronicler described
Lithuania's coat of arms as indicating a mature ruler capable of
defending his Homeland by the sword.
In the Middle Ages, the image of the mounted ruler knight was
perhaps the most favoured symbol for seals. It represented both
the sovereignty of the land, and its defender. One can find a
great many such seals in neighbouring countries. In Lithuania,
the earliest knight was depicted on the 1366 seal of Grand Duke
Algirdas; it has not survived. Circa 1385-1386, when Jogaila
Algirdaitis (son of Algirdas) made the knight a heraldic figure,
using him as a motif on a shield, the personal portrait of the
ruler acquired a common meaning. In the beginning, the knight
symbolized the State's most important Duchy of Vilnius, and was
depicted holding a lance: whoever ruled Vilnius also governed the
entire country. Circa 1382-1384, aspiring to govern, Duke
Vytautas of Trakai, Jogaila's cousin, had replaced the standing
warrior, a lower rank image used on seals up to that time, with
the mounted knight. It was in fact during the rule of Vytautas
(1392-1430) that the mounted knight became the emblem not only of
Vilnius, but of the entire State - the powerful Grand Duchy of
Lithuania -which Vytautas had created. This is seen very clearly
in the throne seal of Vytautas, which appeared at the beginning
of the 15th C. Surrounded by the arms of the territories
belonging to him, in one hand the ruler holds the sword,
symbolizing ducal authority, and in the other - a shield charged
with the knight, thereby symbolizing the State of Lithuania
(knight with sword), in the same way that the sovereign globe
represents the king.
One can only surmise why the portrait of the ruler, and not the
double cross of Jogaila or the Columns of the family of Gediminas
became the State symbol. First of all, it must be remembered that
the coat of arms of the ruler, and later of the State, had
international significance, and needed to be clear and understood
by all. At that time, the heraldry of European States was
dominated by totally different symbols, ones borrowed from the
world of flora and fauna.
The king of beasts - the lion, of birds - the eagle, the queen of
flora- the lily, represented emperors, kings, dukes, and the
States which they ruled. Such devices had clearly defined
meanings. The lion indicated strength, noble-heartedness, and
wrath, the eagle courage, a sharp mind, and insight, and the lily
beauty and majesty. Compared to the lineal heraldry of the
Columns of the family of Gediminas, or even the double cross,
these arms were much more expressive and comprehensible.
Secondly, at the time when Lithuania's coat of arms was being
formed, its people had been fighting to the death for over a
hundred years in an effort to preserve their Statehood. War
became the daily affair not only of the rulers, but of every
Lithuanian in the land. The heaviest burden lay on the warrior
and his constant companion, his horse - both of whom were
extolled in folk song and legend. Thus the mounted knight as
defender of the land was a clear sign to both locals and
foreigners, and as a symbol perhaps best reflected the existing
political situation. Thus the portrait of the ruler and defender
of the country became the emblem of a State ready to determine
its fate by the sword.
The colours and the composition of the coat of arms were
established in the beginning of the 15th C., if not somewhat
earlier: the mounted knight in silver armour with sword raised
above his head, on a field of red; a blue shield charged with a
golden double cross, at his left shoulder (under the rule of the
Kestutis family - a red shield with the golden Columns of the
family of Gediminas). The horse's bridle, leather bands and short
saddle-cloth were coloured blue. Both metals and the two most
important emblem colours of the Middle Ages were used for the
coat of arms. Red at that time represented the materialistic, or
earthly values of life, courage, and blood; blue signified the
spiritual, or divine values of heaven, godly wisdom, and
intelligence. After the Union of Lublin in 1569, when the joint
State of Poland-Lithuania was formed, the early emblem colours
began to change, probably under the influence of the Polish coat
of arms (red-white-yellow). Sometimes the horse's saddle-cloth
was coloured red or purple, and the leather bands yellow. Only
the knight's blue shield with its golden cross changed less
often.
In Lithuania's early heraldry, the knight was usually depicted as
if ready to leap to the defence. In the mid-15Ith C., after
Lithuania's emblem acquired the name "Pogon, Pogonia,
Pogonczyk" from Polish heraldry, the old image of the
defender of the land slowly became that of the knight pursuing
and chasing the enemy. In the 17th C., in an attempt to find a
Lithuanian equivalent for the Polish "Pogonia",
Konstantinas Sirvydas named the emblem "Waykimas",
which is what it was mostly called throughout the 19th C. In 1885
Jonas Basanavicius nicknamed the knight "Vaikas" (from
the word "vaikyti" - to chase). The term
"Vytis" appeared at the end of the 19th C. It was a new
word, which had been created in the middle of the century by
Simonas Daukantas. The honourable historian called Lithuania's
noble knights and horsemen - "vytis". It was perhaps
Mikalojus Akelaitis who had first baptized Lithuania's emblem,
the "Vitis", in Ausra (Dawn), in 1884. Until the 1930s
the emblem was called "Vytis" from the word
"vyti" (to chase, pursue - according to the Polish
version). Only later was its meaning traced to the word
"vytis" (coined by Daukantas to represent the knight).
The Lithuanian coat of arms, which had represented the State for
more than four centuries, was abolished in 1795, when Lithuania
came under the rule of the Russian Empire for a period which
would last for more than 100 years. True, the historic knight did
not disappear entirely. On April 6, 1845, Emperor Nicholas I
approved the use of the knight for the coat of arms of the
province of Vilnius. An armoured knight on a white horse was
depicted galloping across green land, on a field of red. The
knight's silver shield was charged with a golden Orthodox cross.
The horse's saddle-cloth was coloured violet and edged in gold.
The green land disappeared from emblems created during the second
half of the century, and the Orthodox cross on the knight's
shield was coloured red; the saddle-cloth became longer and
acquired three points - it, like the bridle and other leather
bands were coloured purple and edged in gold.
After the downfall of the Russian Empire during the First World
War, Lithuania proclaimed the Act of Restoration of the State on
February 16, 1918. The historic knight of the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania once again took his place in the emblem of the
Lithuanian Republic. The first projects for the coat of arms were
designed by Tadas Daugirdas and Antanas Zmuidzinavicius; devices
drawn by Adomas Varnas, Adomas Galdikas, and other artists were
also used. The romanticized version created by A. Zmuidzinavicius
was the most popular. Its prototype was undoubtedly a 1910
drawing by Tadeusz Dmochowski, reminiscent of the coat of arms
used during the last years of the province of Vilnius. Only T.
Dmochowski depicted the knight more or less historically, while
A. Zmuidzinavicius made him look as if he was flying through the
air. The horse also acquired a golden bridle, bands, and a long
golden saddle-cloth with three points. To further embellish the
coat of arms, the artist decorated the shield with a golden
bordure inset with heraldic stones, ornamentation which Lithuania
had never used before. It was the Spaniards and the Portuguese
who were especially fond of bordures. Heraldic bordures usually
meant a secondary, subordinate lineage, and were totally
inappropriate for the arms of a sovereign State.
The romantic coat of arms created by A. Zmuidzinavicius was
criticized, and a special Commission for the Establishment of
State Arms was formed in 1929. Its most active members were an
archaeologist, General Vladas Nagevicius, art critic Paulius
Galaune, artist Mstislavas Dobuzinskis, historians Ignas Jonynas
and Augustinas Janulaitis, and other known individuals. The work
took five years. M. Dobuzinskis created a project based on the
iconography of Lithuania's ancient coins and seals, but did not
solve perhaps the most important question - the colours for the
coat of arms. The principal colours - the silver knight on a
field of red - did survive, but the knight's shield was also
coloured red, and the double cross, the horseshoes, the horse's
bridle and other accoutrements gold. As it was not clear how to
justify superimposing gold on a silver horse, reference was made
to the "golden bridles" and "golden
horseshoes" of folk songs. The colours and the poor
composition of the knight (with a great deal of empty red field)
aside, the emblem created by M. Dobuzinskis was more archaic and
better founded historically than the version by A.
Zmuidzinavicius, which had been in use till then. However the new
emblem was not officially confirmed. And the further development
of State heraldry was suspended for half a century by the Soviet
occupation in 1940.
The Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania legalized the
historic emblem of the State of Lithuania - the Vytis - on March
11, 1990, the same day that it proclaimed the Act of Restoration
of the Independent State of Lithuania. Soon after, on March 20,
the first post-war composition of the Lithuanian State arms was
confirmed. It was based on the sculptured image of the Vytis,
which had been created for Lithuanian coins in 1925 by sculptor
Juozas Zikaras. The colours of the coat of arms were laid down on
April 9: a mounted knight in silver armour, holding a raised
silver sword above his head, and bearing on his left shoulder a
red shield charged with a golden double cross, on a field of red.
The sword hilt and the sheath braces, the knight's spur, the
bridle bit, the horseshoes, bands, and their decorations were all
gold. The colours were taken from the emblem created in 1934,
although in fact the standard of the coloured coat of arms,
confirmed by the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Republic
of Lithuania on May 17, depicted the shields in purple. This coat
of arms became the symbol of the period of transition, and seemed
to emphasize that the State of Lithuania would carry on its
pre-war traditions. At the same time, the Lithuanian Heraldry
Commission was assigned to prepare a more accurate version of the
device, one based on historical and iconographic sources. On
September 4, 1991, the Supreme Council confirmed the second
version of the coat of arms, the one which is in use to this day.
It differs from the preceding one in that it incorporates the
historical colours and metals (red, blue, silver, gold) which
appeared back in the time of Lithuania's Grand Duke Vytautas. The
new coat of arms also strives to embrace the original idea of the
emblem, i.e. to depict a knight prepared to use the sword to
defend his country and state. Restoring the idea of the
historical colours and the ancient device meant that Lithuania is
not only inheriting and carrying on traditions from before the
war, but also those of the sovereignty of the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania.
Besides the State emblem, the Vytis, two other historical symbols
have been widely used in public life from the end of the 14th C.
to the present day: the double cross, and the Columns of the
family of Gediminas. They were publicly acknowledged as national
symbols during the tenth session of the eleventh congress of the
Supreme Council of the Lithuanian SSR, back in November 1988.
The double cross was the emblem of Lithuania's Grand Prince
Jogaila, and later of the Jogaila family dynasty. The golden
double cross (in an earlier period often with a longer lower
transom) is usually depicted on a field of azure. Since the
second half of the 16th C. it has also sometimes been coloured
silver, has had cross-pieces of equal length, and has been
depicted on a field of red. The true origins of the double cross
have yet to be determined. What is clear is that Jogaila did not
inherit this symbol from his father Algirdas, because the latter
used an image reminiscent of two united arrows, superimposed with
a cross. The double cross was known in the heraldry of Jogaila
from 1388, i.e. soon after the christening of Lithuania.
Therefore it is thought that its symbolism is associated with
this event, which was important both to Jogaila and to the entire
country. In a legend created about the double cross, it is said
that Duke Sventaragis invited a prophetess from Nemunaitis to
come and explain the meaning of the 101 stones which were
inscribed with signs indicating good and bad years, and built
into the pagan sanctuary. The prophetess said that when the year
of the double cross carne to pass, the sanctuary would be
demolished and the faith displaced. Not infrequently in Western
European heraldry a similar cross represents baptism. It is
called a patriarchal cross, or the cross of Lorraine, and is used
by archbishops. The double cross with its similar meaning, found
on the arms of Hungary, could have been the prototype for the
Lithuanian one. It was used both independently and on the shield
of the Lithuanian knight. In the beginning the double cross on
the State arms indicated the ruling dynasty. After the death in
1572 of Sigismund Augustus, the last descendant of the male line
of the Jogaila family, the double cross was kept as part of the
great, and later the small State seals. Having lost its
association with the dynasty, it began to be called simply the
Vytis cross.
After 1397, the Columns of the Gediminas family became the emblem
for Lithuania's Grand Duke Vytautas. It is thought that his
father Kestutis, Duke of Trakai, may have already had a similar
symbol. After the death of Vytautas, his brother Sigismundus of
the Kestutis family took it over. It was therefore called the
emblem of the Kestutis family, and as of the 16th C., when the
Jogaila family also began to use it, it became the symbol of the
entire Gediminas family dynasty. It was usually a golden shape on
a field of red, though after the second half of the 16th C., it
was not infrequently coloured silver. This emblem has perhaps
borne the most legends. In the 15th C. it did not yet have a name
and was, according to Jan Dlugosz, the sign of Vytautas, often
used for branding horses, and to decorate military banners. In
the beginning of the 16th C., the emblem was called the Columns,
and was assigned to Palemonas, the legendary founder of the
Gediminas family dynasty, who had come to Lithuania from Italy.
Later this symbol was associated with signs used by Tatars,
Slavs, Scandinavians, and even the Japanese. What is clear is
that the so-called Columns did originate in Lithuania, for
similar signs can be found even on the arms of nobles. Once they
may have represented posts, or gates with towers. Teodoras
Narbutas christened this emblem the Columns of Gediminas in the
first half of the 19th C., because it was thought that Grand Duke
Gediminas was the one who had started using them. During the
first half of the 20th C. the emblem was referred to as a mast
gate. Scholarly literature now uses the more neutral name, the
Columns of the Gediminas family. The double cross and the Columns
of the Gediminas family became very widely used during the first
half of the 20th C., after the formation of the Independent State
of Lithuania. They became the identifying emblem of the
Lithuanian army, police, airforce, and other State institutions.
They embellished Lithuanian orders, medals, official insignia,
and became the emblems of a great many public societies and
organizations. Their use, along with the State arms, was banned
in 1940. The historical symbols were resurrected with Lithuania's
rebirth. In 1988 the Columns of the Gediminas family became the
main emblem of the Lithuanian "Sajudis", the movement
which brought the country to the point of its restoration as the
State of Lithuania, and took on the role of the second State
emblem. The double cross began to symbolize the restored
Lithuanian police force. The historical designs were returned to
the Lithuanian army, airforce, navy, National Olympic Committee,
and other State and public institutions. Once the personal
symbols of Lithuania's dukes, and later of dynasties, these
emblems gradually became the symbols of the entire Lithuanian
nation, or national symbols."
Audrius Slapsinskas, 24 June 2003
See also: <jurix.jura.uni-sb.de/~serko/history/pahonia.html>
I've found some interesting bibliography on the coat of arms:
http://www3.lrs.lt/pls/inter/w5_show?p_r=4056&p_d=9978&p_k=1
http://www3.lrs.lt/pls/inter/w5_show?p_r=4056&p_d=17268&p_k=1
Esteban Rivera, 01 April 2015
from <www.president.lt>
The version with the griffin and unicorn is the coat of arms
of the president, which appears on its flag.
Pascal Vagnat, 27 June 2003
from Smolensk
site located by Dov Gutterman, 21 December 1998
This is a CoA of Great Lithuania to which Smolensk was added
at 1395
Michael B.Simakov , 21 December 1998