Biržų miesto herbas

ENThe article discusses the heraldry of the Radvila dukes’ private city of Biržai. Sources indicate that together with autonomous city rights, in 1589 Sigismund Vasa granted the city of Biržai a coat of arms - a black eagle on a white (silver) flag on a yellow (gold) background. This coat of arms was used continuously without major alterations in the city’s public life until 1840, that is, for around 250 years. The only real change was the addition of the earlier Radvila coat of arms on the eagle’s breast in 1642. The earlier coat of arms featured three black hunting horns on a blue shield, and in the second half of the 17th century, the horns were replaced by the monogram of Sigismund Vasa, grantor of the city’s autonomous rights and its coat of arms. Over that time, the black eagle on the white flag became an inseparable part of Biržai city’s history of autonomy, an attribute of its honour and pride. It was carved onto city seals, it was used to decorate the caps that were part of the uniform of the magistrate’s officers, as well as the town hall tower, the city flag, perhaps even the public gauge standards for Biržai city, and other municipal and official items. This most likely explains why the residents of Biržai, having been given a coat of arms copied from the Kėdainiai privilege by Stanisław Augustus in 1792 disregarded it completely.Only during the period of the First Republic of Lithuania, when coats of arms that had been banned by the Russian Empire were being rediscovered, the 1792 coat of arms once ignored by the city’s residents was incorporated into the Biržai city burgomaster’s stamp, and on the pediment of the new town hall. Another novelty was being used at the same time, a coat of arms quite poorly drawn by Tadas Daugirdas and other artists based on the verbal description of the 1792 privilege. This version was popularised across the whole country through the press. The first attempt at restoring the old historic coat of arms was in the Soviet period in 1969, however, due to a lack of sources and reliable monographic material, it had a number of errors. The new Biržai coat of arms based on the original privilege of 1589 was recreated on the eve of the 400th anniversary of the city’s autonomy rights. Later, on November 6,1997 a corrected coloured version was certified by the President of the Republic of Lithuania. [From the publication]