Coat of arms of Białystok

The Coat of arms of Białystok is one of the symbols of Białystok, the administrative center of Podlaskie Voivodeship located in north-eastern Poland. It was adopted on February 27, 1995, by virtue of Resolution No. XIII/76/95 of the Białystok City Council.

Coat of arms of Białystok
Versions
Greater Coat of arms of Białystok
ArmigerBiałystok
Adopted1995
MottoCIVITAS BIALYSTOK

Appearance and symbolism

Heraldic shield divided into a belt. Top red, bottom gold. On the upper part, there is a silver eagle in a golden crown, with a golden beak and talons and a red tongue. In the lower part, there is the Lithuanian Chase (Pogoń litewska), whose horse is silver with a golden harness and a red three-piece saddle pad. A rider in blue armor, a blue helmet with an open visor and a silver feather, a raised sword blue, gold spurs. A blue rider's shield with a silver Jagiellonian cross on it.

In the dignified version of the coat of arms, two silver griffins hold the shield of the coat of arms and the city crown above it. Under the shield there is a silver ribbon with the inscription CIVITAS BIALYSTOK.

History

When Białystok obtained city rights, and thus the City Coat of Arms, is not known exactly, but it must have been before 1692, as evidenced by the record made by the city parish priest: "Year 1692. City of Białystok. Behind the privileges of freedom to years of certain data, year one is now being built..."

It is assumed that the coat of arms of a given city is the seal emblem or the developed coat of arms, the image of which was used first on the oldest city seal. The oldest preserved seal depicting the image of a deer appeared on a document of the municipal office of August 23, 1745. This coat of arms was officially used until the mid-18th century. – city founders and owners. It was a Gryf based on the initials of Jan Klemens Branicki (JKB). Despite this, seals with a deer were still used on municipal documents.

After the death of Jan Klemens Branicki in 1771, Izabela Branicka née Poniatowska, widow of Jan Klemens, became the owner of Białystok. After 1795, Białystok became the seat of the newly created province of New East Prussia, but it was still the private city of Izabela Branicka.

The Prussian authorities made efforts to purchase the town. They succeeded on April 2, 1802, when Białystok was sold by the owner for over 270,000 thalers.[1] Branicka was also assured of income from the city. In the State Archives in Białystok there is an archival set of the Camera of War and Domains of the Białystok Department of New East Prussia 1795–1807. In the files of this team there is a seal with the imprinted coat of arms of Bialystok. On the seal on the right side (heraldic left) there is a griffin supporting itself with its front paws on the initial IB. The initials are on the left (heraldic right). Above the initials and the griffin there is an open crown with five fleurons. The inscription on the rim in Latin SIGILLUM CIVIT BIALOSTOCIENISIS BORUS. ORIENT. NOV, which means: Seal of the city of Białystok of New East Prussia. Compared to the coat of arms granted by August III, the initials were changed from JKB to IB, i.e. the first letters of Jan Klemens Branicki's names and surnames were replaced with the initials of Izabela Branicka.

19th century

In 1807, a peace treaty was signed between Napoleon and Alexander I of Russia, under which Białystok and its surroundings were annexed to Russia under the name of the Belostok Oblast. On August 8, 1809, Tsar Alexander I granted the Oblast a coat of arms depicting a divided belt on a shield, the White Eagle on a red background, and the Lithuanian Chase in an orange field. It was not only the coat of arms of the city, but the coat of arms of the land belonging to the entire Białystok District. The eagle was without a crown. The coat of arms did not refer to the tradition of Polish heraldry, according to which the coat of arms should be divided into a pillar, not a belt.

In 1842, the Russian authorities liquidated the Białystok District and incorporated it into the Grodno Governorate. Tsar Nicholas I ordered in 1845 to establish provincial and district coats of arms for Grodno, Kaunas, Minsk and Vilnius. Territorial coats of arms were only for cities within their territory without individual city coats of arms. The coat of arms of the Białystok poviat presented a red shield with a bison as the coat of arms of Grodno in the upper field and a crowned white eagle in the lower field. Białystok adopted the county coat of arms as its own town coat of arms.

In 1882, Tsar Alexander III of Russia adopted the title of the Duke of Białystok and the coat of arms of the city of Białystok, which was presented as follows: in the upper red field a silver eagle, underneath in a golden field a knight in blue armor with a sword raised to strike and a silver shield on which a red cross, a black horse under a red saddle pad with a triple golden tassel. The former coat of arms of the District became the coat of arms of the city.

In 1910, the governor of Grodno ordered to remove the coat of arms used since 1882 from the Magistrate's building and ordered the use of the county coat of arms with a bison and a crowned eagle.

During the German occupation in the years 1915–1919, the motif of the coat of arms with the eagle and Pogoń was returned. His stylized image (the heraldic colors were not preserved, because the coat of arms was pink, and the Eagle and Pogoń black) was on postage stamps.

After Białystok was annexed to Poland in 1919, following Poland's independence the coat of arms with Pogoń from before 1910 was adopted.

In 1935, the Białystok city hall, based on the arguments of prof. Mariana Gumowski from the Polish Heraldic Society and the arguments put forward by the commission appointed on November 28, 1934, submitted the following proposals for further deliberations of the City Council: accept as the project of the future coat of arms of the city of Białystok the coat of arms "Gryf" in white on a red shield, above the griffin a five-baton crown in zloty, ask the Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw to send a certified (together with a translation) copy of the document of November 16, 1760 containing the privileges for the city of Białystok and the granting of a coat of arms along with its exact drawing and description.

The City Council rejected the request of the city hall and by virtue of a resolution of October 30, 1935, the coat of arms of Białystok was recognized as the coat of arms of the Białystok District with some modifications: a crown was added to the eagle, a feather to the helmet was added to the knight. The red cross on the shield was repainted white, the golden tassels on the shabrack were removed, the black horse was replaced with a white one.[2] From the state Crown Eagle, the new Eagle was distinguished by the lack of a golden band. The Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment refused to approve the municipal resolution and ordered the town to restore the historical coat of arms from the times of Branicki. However, the Council did not agree and on November 23, 1937, it re-adopted the previous resolution, which turned out to be unsuccessful. The issue of the coat of arms was not resolved until 1939.

In the years 1944–1950, the municipal authorities used the coat of arms from the interwar period, although they did not formalize it. It was not until the resolution No. X/68/67 of the Municipal National Council of February 27, 1967 that this problem was resolved as follows: The Municipal National Council in Białystok decided to adopt the version of the coat of arms given to the Białystok district in a depicting a two-field shield, with a white eagle without a crown in the upper red field, and a variant of the Lithuanian pursuit in the lower yellow field, a knight in blue armor with a raised sword and a white shield with a blue Greek cross, sitting on a black horse.[3]

Another modification of the coat of arms of Białystok was introduced by Resolution No. XIII/76/95 of the City Council in Białystok of February 27, 1995 on amending the Statute of the city, the Regulations of the City Council and establishing the graphic design of the City coat of arms.[4] The author of the basic and dignified version and the flag is the artist Tadeusz Gajl.

References
  1. "Informator Bialostocki - Geneza Herbu" (in Polish). Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  2. "Dzieje herbu Bialegostoku" (PDF) (in Polish). p. 24. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  3. "Katalog Wystawy" (PDF) (in Polish). Instytut Pamieci Narodowy. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
  4. Aneta Boruch (2012-07-30). "Białystok i województwo podlaskie. Herb bardziej carski niż polski" (in Polish). Kurier Poranny. Retrieved 2023-08-21.
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