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Grosuplje (Municipality, Slovenia)

Flag of Grosuplje, horizontal and vertical versions - Images by Željko Heimer, 9 July 2013

Presentation of Grosuplje
Flag of Grosuplje
Coat of arms of Grosuplje
Table flag of Grosuplje
Former emblem of Grosuplje

See also:

Presentation of Grosuplje

The municipality of Grosuplje (19,318 inhabitants in 2013; 134 sq. km; municipal website) is located in Lower Carniola, 20 km south-east of Ljubljana. The municipality is made of the town of Grosuplje and of 66 villages grouped in the 10 local communities of Grosuplje (8,399 inh.; 6,873 inh. in the town of Grosuplje), Ilova gora (163 inh.), Mlačevo (1,153 inh.), Šent Jurij (1,902 inh.), Polica (1,652 inh.), Račna (737 inh.), Spodnja Slivnica (538 inh.), Škocjan (420 inh.), Šmarkje sap (3,233 inh.), and Žalna (1,121 inh.).

Grosuplje was mentioned for the first time in 1136, as Groslupp. The town was subsequently known under 13 different names, including Grasslupp and Grazlup.
Grosuplje is the birth town of the poet Vinko Žitnik (1903-1980), who emigrated to Argentina in 1947. Žitnik is credited several secular and religious songs highlighting the traditional values (love, religion, regionalism) of the Slovene countryside. Another famous child of Grosuplje is Jože Gale (1913-2004), who directed three films featuring Kekec, a famous character created by Josip Vandot in 1918; the first film of the series, Kekec (1951), was awarded a Golden Lion in the Children's Film category at the Venice Film Festival in 1952.

Ivan Sache, 28 June 2013

Flag of Grosuplje

On the municipal website, there is a photography of the town hall with the flags of Slovenia and Grosuplje. Although the image is very small, the flag there seems to be a vertically hoisted flag, vertically divided white-green-white with the coat of arms in the middle.
Stanič & Jakopič [j2s05] show only the vertical version of the flag, with the coat of arms centered. They claim that the stripes are of equal width, while the source mentioned above has the vertical flag with the green stripe being thinner than the two other stripes.

The horizontal version of the flag used during a basket ball match (photo) has the central, green stripe narrower than the outer, white stripes. The flag is better seen on the video embedded at the bottom of the page (2:10 / 2:20).

Željko Heimer, 21 January 2006

Coat of arms of Grosuplje

Coat of arms of Grosuplje - Image by Željko Heimer, 9 July 2013

The coat of arms of Grosuplje (municipal website) is "Tierced, per fess, base per pale, argent, vert and gules, overall a horse's head sable".
The horse's head is made of a series of circles. As many other Slovene municipal coats of arms, this one is used on licence plates with a somewhat different shield.

The coat of arms is based on a lead svastika ornamented wih horse"s heads from the late Hallstatt culture (5th century BP). The metal ornament was found near Grosuplje, on Magdalenska gora. The design was chosen as it also represents Grosuplje as an important transport station, once a carriage station, today also an important stop for road transport. The horse's head also recalls letter "G".
Green represents Dolenjska region (Lower Slovenia) while red represents activity and development.
Quoting the Slovenia official tourist's website:

Its exceedingly well preserved prehistoric settlement with man-made terraces and defensive rampart, its great number of family mounds, its lively history of archaeological research and rich archaeological finds put Magdalene mountain among the best known archaeological sites in Slovenia. Most of the finds date between the 8th century B.C. and 1st century B.C. and some finds are from Roman and Medieval times. They are kept in museums in Ljubljana, Vienna and Harvard. On the top of the hill, on the site of the acropolis of the ancient settlement, stands the church of St Magdalene, built in rustic gothic style. The church, first mentioned in writing in 1366 is dedicated to St. Magdalene, a very vivacious woman, who became a saint when she met Jesus.

A comprehensive monograph of the site, Magdalenska gora. Družbena struktura in grobni rituali železnodobne skupnosti / Social structure and burial rites of the Iron Age community, was published in 2012 by Sneža Tecco Hvaal, from the Slovene Institute of Archeology (Opera Instituti Archaeologici Slovenia, No. 26, PDF).
The swastika-shaped ornament is presented on Plate 61, item 21, p. 156. They were made "of a lead-zinc alloy and represent local products dating to the Late Certosa or Early Negova phases".

Željko Heimer & Ivan Sache, 28 June 2013

Table flag of Grosuplje

Table flag of Grosuplje - Image by Željko Heimer, 25 September 2013

Photos showing the table flag confirm the narrower green stripe and the placement of the coat of arms near the bottom of the flag. The green stripe appears to be narrower on the table flag than on the horizontal, full-sized flag.

Ivan Sache, 28 June 2013

Former emblem of Grosuplje

Former emblem of Grosuplje - Image by Željko Heimer, 9 September 2004

Zalokar [zal90] shows the former emblem of Grosuplje, adopted in the mid-1980s and replaced in the early 1990s by the current coat of arms.
The emblem pictures a white shield bordered in green and charged with a ruined tower standing on a green hill made of concentric rings. Around the shield is inscribed the name of the municipality.

Željko Heimer, 9 September 2004