What do the coats of arms of Russian settlements mean, which cause a smile and bewilderment

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Heraldry is a strange science. It happens that you look at some coat of arms and do not understand whether you are surprised or laugh. One has to go far for examples - some coats of arms in our country are very peculiar. Unexpected characters are on the coats of arms of towns, villages, districts. But they cause bewilderment only if you do not know their meaning. We suggest that you familiarize yourself with some of the coats of arms in our country that look the most extravagant.

Shuya's coat of arms

The city of Shuya, located in the Ivanovo region, has a very laconic and mysterious coat of arms. On it is a yellow brick on a red background. Or maybe it's a picture of a gold bar? It turns out not both. The coat of arms depicts soap. The justification for the coat of arms indicates that this city has been famous for its soap making since ancient times (for the first time this type of industry in Shuya was mentioned in the scribal book of 1629). Well, the red background symbolizes courage, courage and rich history of the city. By the way, on the historical coat of arms of Shuya, there was also a lion over the soap, but then this symbol was abolished.

Coat of arms of Srednekolymsk

The "Rising Mammoth" (as it is indicated in the description of the coat of arms) seems to be going to threaten two small thin Christmas trees located on the left side of the image. However, in fact, this "victorious stance" of the ancient animal does not carry any threat. It's just that the trees symbolize the nature typical of the city's surroundings, and the mammoth symbolizes the fact that numerous remains of these animals were found in the area in ancient frozen rocks.

Coat of arms of Irkutsk

The coat of arms of the city of Irkutsk depicts a strange creature in the form of a cat with webbed paws and a thick tail. It turns out that this is babr. In Dahl's dictionary it is written that this was the name of the Siberian beast in the old days, which can be compared with a lion in ferocity and strength, and at the same time it is said that a babr is a tiger. If you look at the coat of arms of Irkutsk in the 18th century, you can actually see a tiger on it.

In 1859, as a result of the reform of Russian heraldry, due to someone's mistake the babr on the coat of arms was confused with a beaver. This is how beaver legs and a tail appeared. The scarlet sable, which was originally held in its mouth by the babr on the coat of arms, in the new version of the coat of arms ended up in the teeth of the "tiger beaver". When the coat of arms was renewed at the end of the 20th century, it was decided to leave the mythical animal as a tourist attraction.

Coat of arms of Chelyabinsk

It would seem, what does the camel have to do with it? However, the presence of the "ship of the desert" on the coat of arms of the city has an official justification. The loaded golden camel reminds that Chelyabinsk is rich in goods and the development of this city directly depends on its success in trade.

Epifani coat of arms

The coat of arms of the village of Epifan (Tula region) will surely please those who like to smoke weed, because it depicts hemp. In the modern world, they have already forgotten that hemp in Russia played an important role - they made porridge from it, made clothes, and so on. In the old justification for the coat of arms of the county town of Epifan, it is indicated that in the image "three hemp epics" grow from the black earth, thereby showing that the surroundings of the city abound in hemp.

Coat of arms of Zheleznogorsk

On the coat of arms of the closed administrative-territorial entity of Zheleznogorsk (Krasnoyarsk Territory), you can see a bear holding a certain silvery object in its paws and either out of rage or out of curiosity trying to tear it apart. The bear is entangled with elongated hoops, as if it were placed in a giant atom. So it is: Zheleznogorsk is a city of nuclear scientists (a mining and chemical plant is located here), and, according to the author of the coat of arms, the bear breaks the nucleus in the structural lattice of the atom. This symbolizes the fusion of nature and human thought, because Zheleznogorsk was built in the taiga.

Coat of arms of the Chernyshevsky district

If a mammoth is depicted on the coat of arms of Srednekolymsk, then on the coat of arms of the Chernyshevsky district in Transbaikalia there is a dinosaur. Or rather, an ancient lizard. It turns out that one of the oldest dinosaur burials on Earth was discovered in this area. Among the specimens found there are very rare ones. The golden lizard on the coat of arms symbolizes the prehistoric herbivorous dinosaur that lived here about 160 million years ago. His height was about a meter, and his skin was covered with scales and feathers. And he is depicted in gold, because this color is a symbol of wealth and stability.

Strange coats of arms of Moscow districts

The coat of arms of the municipality Airport depicts an old golden carriage.

It would seem, what is the connection between the "carriage" and the "airport"? It turns out, almost none. It's just a reminder of the imperial road carriage of Catherine II and of the historically established front entrance to Moscow with a stop at the Petrovsky Passage Palace on Tverskoy tract (near the modern Aeroport metro station).

A strange scene is depicted on the coat of arms of the Khoroshevo-Mnevniki municipality. The animal, clearly resembling a beaver, stands on its hips and rests on the bricks with its right foot, and with its hand (more precisely, with its paw) firmly grabbed the tree, as if it wants to uproot it.

The beaver is drawn very schematically. From the description for the coat of arms, it is said that the tree depicted is a pine, and the combination of wood, beaver and bricks symbolizes that pines have been growing in these parts for a long time and beavers have lived - builders of dams.

Another strange symbol is the centaur on the coat of arms of the Butyrsky district. Why it is he is not entirely clear, but it is known that this mythical creature was present on the coat of arms of the Butyrka regiment since 1730.

The description says that the centaur on the coat of arms of the Butyrsky municipality symbolizes the unity of the best human qualities (strength, skill, dedication, etc.) and the power of the forces of nature.

No less interesting is the topic of family coats of arms and, in general, the inheritance of surnames from our ancestors. We offer you to read the material about how they lived Illegitimate in Russia: How they were treated and whose surname they bore