After several years of studying, publishing several scholarly papers, and participating a few international conferences with the topic as well as giving a few public lectures in Rijeka, HGZD president Željko Heimer unified his research of the city flag and various other flags used and still in use in the city on the Riječina river. An incentive to piblish systematical work on the city flag came from the Free State of Fiume association, which run an initiative for the historical city flag to be again adopted as the official one for years. Even it seemed a few years back that the struggle will be successful and finished, it merely accomplished for the time being that the historical flag was adopted as a ceremonial flag to be used in certain circumstances only, while the official flag remained the light blue one with the current official city arms.
The book presents flag hoisted in Rijeka since the standard was erected in 1508 and flag were associated with the city in navigational portolans, through series of flags depicting the city arms on versions of national tricolours (Austrian, Hungarian, Croatian) to the idea and lengthy process of the approval of the first true city flag in colors of the coat of arms granted in 1659. However, even afterwards, every government change sought way to amend the city flag in some way, introducing it’s ideological elements or omitting some of the previous.
Beside the systematic overview of the city flag history, the monograph presents numerous other flags of various periods of the Rijeka history: administrative units, maritime administrations, shipping companies, sports, academic, firefighters and hunters flags, colors of military units from the Croatian Homeland War, and final, some individual flags, such as the Marian shrine at Trsat, the Rijeka Carnival, kindergartens, and ending with the flag of the European Culture Capital 2020 manifestation. Although this may certainly not encompass each and every flag ever used in Rijeka, it still presents the majority of the city’s vexillological corps.
The book contains over two hundred illustrations, mostly authors drawings of the flags, and it is accompanied with more that 450 footnotes and a detailed list of consulted literature and used sources.
Title: Zastave Rijeke – monografija 200 godina borbe grada za pravo na svoju zastavu [in English: Flags of Rijeka – monograph of 200 years city struggle for the right for its own flag]
Author: Željko Heimer
Punlisher: place, year: Udruga Slobodna Država Rijeka: Rijeka, 2022.
ISBN: 978-953-49496-2-7
Reviewers: prof. dr. sc. Željko Bartulović, izv. prof. dr. sc. Tomislav Galović
Binding: paperback
Paged: 144
Dimensions: 24×16 cm (9.5″×6.5″)
Price: 20 EUR
Orders at mileticr@gmail.com Predrag Miletić, SDR secretary