Serbia: Coat of arms

Last modified: 2025-07-19 by rob raeside
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Lesser (left) and greater (right) coats of arms of Serbia - Images by Željko Heimer, 28 December 2010

• Design of the symbols of Serbia
  • Coat of arms of Serbia used in 2004-2011
• Law on the coat of arms of Serbia
  • Origin of the firesteels/4C's charges (ocila)

See also:

• Serbia

Design of the symbols of Serbia

The design of the symbols of Serbia is prescribed by "Regulation on the establishment of source illustration of greater and lesser arms and of flag, and of the score of the anthem", adopted by the Government on 11 November 2010 (government website, images). The 2009 Law prescribing the symbols granted authority to the Government to issue such a Regulation.
The Regulation will be offical eight days after its publication in the official gazette of the Republic of Serbia.

The new designs were made by Pr. Ljubodrag Grujić, who consulted Dragomir Acović, the Honorary President of the Serbian Heraldry Society. Both were commissioned to redesign the symbols after the adoption of the 2009 Law.

Compared with the designs in use before, changes were made in the coat of arms' stylization (images) and in the color standardization (source).

Dark red is used only on greater arms, as the color of the red side of the ermine mantling.

The heraldic description of the lesser coat of arms of Serbia is:
"Gules, two fleurs-de-lis or below a double-headed eagle argent, beaked, membered and langued or, bearing an escutcheon: gules, a cross between four firesteels addorsed, all argent. Crowned with a royal crown proper".

A news report claims that the 1882 coat of arms, readopted in 2004, was influenced by "German heraldry" and that the new version is now more in accordance with Serbian heraldry, without any "German" influence. The claim can not be proven easily: the fact is that the 1882 design was prepared by the eminent Austrian heraldic expert Ernest Krahl, Imperial Herald in Vienna at the time.

Ivan Sarajčić & Željko Heimer, 28 December 2010

Coat of Arms of Serbia used in 2004-2011

Lesser (left) and greater (right) coats of arms of Serbia, 2004-2011 - Images by Željko Heimer, 4 February 2008

Law on the coat of arms of Serbia

The greater and lesser coats of arms are prescribed by the Law of 19 May 2009:

The design of the greater coat of arms
Article 11.
The greater coat of arms is a red shield in which is set, between two golden fleurs-de-lis in its base, a two-headed silver eagle, armed golden and with the tongue and legs of the same, with a red shield on its chests in which is a silver cross between four firesteels of the same with their bases turned towards the vertical beam of the cross. The shield is crowned with a golden crown and draped with a crimson (porphyry) mantle embroidered gold, with a golden fringe, tied up with golden braid with tassels of the same, lined with ermine and crowned with a golden crown.

The design of the lesser coat of arms
Article 12.
The lesser coat of arms a red shield in which is, placed, between two golden fleurs-de-lis in its base, set a two-headed silver eagle, armed golden and with the tongue and legs of the same, with a red shield on its chests in which is a silver cross between four firesteels of the same with their bases turned towards the vertical beam of the cross. The shield is crowned with a golden crown.

Željko Heimer, 22 May 2009

Origin of the firesteels/4C's charges (ocila)

The four C-shaped elements shown on the coat of arms of Serbia are called ocila. Another word in Serbian for the same device is ognjila, but I do not think that this is ever used for those elements in this context.
In English, an ocila is called a firesteel, It is an implement for striking sparks from flint and steel, in order to create fire. The firesteel, with its convenient handles, was struck on flint, and also worked on other rocks. It became a heraldic image in connection with the Order of the Golden Fleece, founded in 1430.

The meaning and use of this symbol is said to date back to the 13th century, referring to the life of St. Sava, a Serbian prince, monk, and a patron of the Serbian Orthodox Church (established in 1219).
During that time of transition in Serbian maedieval history, the state was pressured by the Holy See to convert into Catholicism. Since the state did not have its own independent ecclesiastic establishment, St. Sava called for establishment of a Serbian independent Archiepiscopat, and as well called on all Serbs to unite against the pressure from the Holy See.
St. Sava said, "Only Unity Saves the Serbs", in Serbian, Samo Sloga Srbina Spasava. Every word in that sentence begins with the letter "S", written #x0421; in Cyrillic alphabet. There comes the explanation why there are four C's in the Serbian coat of arms. The Serbian coat of arms represents a reminder for a need for Serbian people to unite with the cause to preserve their heritage and nationhood.

David Adizes, 23 November 1999

Before the 12th century, an almost identical cross with four C- or rather B-shaped firesteels was used by the Byzantine Palaiologos Emperors, the letters standing for the Emperor's motto: Βασιλευς Βασιλεων Βασιλευων Βασιλευσιν, that is, "King of Kings, ruling over Kings".

Santiago Dotor, 25 November 1999

In the Orthodox Church, the cross that has been seen by Constantine the Great (270/288-337) is a very important symbol. Before the battle at Saxa Rubra (Milvian Bridge) he is said to have seen in the sky a very bright cross ("bright as many stars"). The message that he's been heard was: In hoc signo vinces. There is a difference between this cross of victory (Constantine won the battle) and the cross of crucifixion. In addition, it is also a representation of the bright cross they believe that will appear in the sky at the end of the World (Matthew 24:30).
There are several different ways to represent brightness of that cross. One of them is with diagonal rays, the second is with the Greek letters IS HS NI KA (Jesus Christ is victor). The third way is with four firesteels. The cross with four firesteels is an old Byzantine/Orthodox symbol and should not be connected to the Palaiologos (the last ruling family). It has nothing to do with four Β (Greek or Serbian Cyrillic alphabet).

Zoran Nikolić, 14 July 2004

The symbol of cross between four firesteels was used by the Byzantine Empire and is still used by the Orthodox Church of Greece, by Serbia and by the Serbian Orthodox Church. As stated in these pages, the firesteels are supposed to be derived from four letters beta, which are said to have been the initial letters of the motto "Βασιλευς Βασιλεων Βασιλευων Βασιλευσιν" ("King of Kings, ruling over Kings"). This explanation is incorrect, though, which has been known for a long time, still having been repeatedly presented as correct, the increasingly numerous online appearances of the presentation only worsening the matter. The correct story about the origin of the symbol follows:

The explanation of four betas as the abbreviation for "Βασιλευς Βασιλεων Βασιλευων Βασιλευσιν" ("King of Kings, ruling over Kings") was first presented by Marc de Vulson de La Colombičre, a 17th-century French historian and heraldist, who claimed that the motto, originally used in the Byzantine Empire, was preserved by the Paleologue marquesses of Monferrato, a cadet branch of the last Byzantine imperial dynasty. However, in the Byzantine Empire, the Emperor was never styled "King of Kings" - that was reserved for Christ only, so such a motto, or its abbreviation, would have never appeared on mundane objects such as the flags. On the other hand, there are numerous examples of coins bearing a cross between four or fewer letters, the combination with four betas, favoured by the Paleologues, being just one of many. All of those combinations are interpreted by including the cross into the abbreviation, to be read as "Σταυρε", the vocative case of the Greek word for cross, "Σταυρος". For example, coins of Justinian I bore the cross between four letters chi, standing for "Σταυρε Χριστου χαριν χριστιανους χαριζε", i.e. "Cross of Christ, bestow grace on the Christians", while on those of Romanus IV, the letters were ΣΒΡΔ, standing for "Σταυρε σου βοηθει Ρωμανον δεσποτην" i.e. "Thy [i.e. Christ's] Cross, aid Lord Romanus". Based on such examples, Greek historian Ioannis N. Svoronos proposed several possible readings for the cross between four betas; according to Russian historian Alexander Soloviev, the most likely one of those was "Σταυρε βασιλεως βασιλεων βασιλει βοηθει", i.e. "Cross of the King of Kings, aid the King". This is consistent with the examples of coins bearing the cross between two betas, which would stand for "Σταυρε βασιλει βοηθει", i.e. "Cross, aid the King", as well as the cross accompanied with a single beta, which would simply mean "Σταυρε βοηθει", i.e. "Cross, aid". (Note that the word "βασιλευς" meant "king" in Ancient Greek, but "emperor" in Medieval Greek, while it means "king" in Modern Greek again.) The supposed tradition referred to by Vulson was thus a distortion, based on vague memories of Italian Paleologues, who were quickly Westernized after their accession to Monferrato in 1306. [1, 2, 3]

How and when did the cross between four betas evolve into the cross between four firesteels, is still not precisely determined. However, the Paleologue coins already display an early stage of this evolution, as the betas were frequently arranged into two mirrored pairs, typically both addorsed, sometimes both respectant, or even one pair addorsed and the other respectant; they were also sometimes arranged diagonally, all of them either facing the center of the cross or away from it [1-5]. Their forms were also varying, frequently resembling the firesteels with closed or partly open handles [1-5]. The stone slabs placed on the walls and towers of Galata (aka Pera), the foreigners' quarter of Constantinople, also displayed the Byzantine/Paleologue shields of arms with two mirrored pairs of charges whose shapes look like the betas, but also resembled the closed-handled firesteels [6]. The first sources which explicitly describe the symbols as the firesteels are "De Officiis" by Pseudo-Kodinos and the "Book of All Kingdoms" [f0f05], both written in mid-14th century [1-5, 7]. Both of those texts, created independently from one another, describe the flags bearing the cross between the firesteels, the latter one also specifying the colors (gold charges on a red field) and depicting the firesteels with more or less open handles, the shape closer to a sigma, especially to its lunate form, typical for Medieval Greek.

The arms of the Paleologues of Monferrato [4, 8-11] seem to have underwent a parallel evolution from betas to firesteels, the latter being preferred, although not exclusively used, by the Gonzaga dukes of Mantua, who inherited Monferrato in 1536 [10-13], while the former appear now in the arms of Casale Monferrato municipality. The tinctures of these arms were certainly brought directly from Constantinople, not borrowed from the "Book of All Kingdoms", which was written after the Paleologue accession to Monferrato. The version with firesteels has also appeared in the greater arms of the Bourbon-Parma dynasty [4, 14], although there were recent efforts to revert it to the version with betas, with Vulson's explanation [15]. The arms were not included there to represent the descent from the Paleologues, but the claim to sovereignty over the Constantinian Order of St George, supposedly originating in the Byzantine Empire, to be later inherited by the Dukes of Parma and Piacenza [15].

The evolution of the emblem is also visible in the portolan charts [7], which display Byzantine flags with the form of symbols in the cantons varying from beta-shaped to those resembling a lunate sigma, the former of those likely more frequent then the latter. The flag colors are those from the "Book of All Kingdoms", which was the main source for the contemporary mapmakers, although they also must have had some first-hand information from the seafarers for whom their creations were intended. It is also worth noting that the symbols are invariably positioned horizontally there, thus looking like the firesteels even more; this also makes them easier to draw in such a small area as the one occupied by a flag image on a portolan chart, but it is impossible to tell if it was the only reason to depict them so, or they were really appearing on the flags as such, at least on some of them.

Sources:

[1] Solovjev, Aleksandar: Istorija srpskog grba. [slv00]

[2] Solovjev, Aleksandar: O postanku srpskog grba. [slv00]

[3] Solovjev, Aleksandar: Vizantijski heraldički amblemi i Sloveni. [slv00]

[4] Acović, Dragomir: Heraldika i Srbi Zavod za udžbenike; Belgrade, 2008
ISBN 978-86-17-15093-6

[5] Palavestra, Aleksandar: O ocilima. Ilirski grbovnici i drugi heraldički radovi
Zavod za udžbenike: Dosije studio; Belgrade, 2010
ISBN 978-86-17-17266-2

[6] The Byzantine Legacy website - Mural Slabs from Genoese Galata: https://www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/galata-slabs

[7] Palavestra, Aleksandar: Portolani i grbovnici kao izvor za srpsku heraldiku. (Ibid.)

[8] Montenegro auction house website - Silver coin of Bonifacio II (IV) of Monferrato:
https://montenegro.bidinside.com/it/lot/3731/casale-monferrato-bonifacio-ii-paleologo-

[9] Wikimedia Commons - Gold coin of Guglielmo II (IX) of Monferrato: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Casale_monferrato

[10] Wikimedia Commons - Marital arms of Federico II Gonzaga and Margherita Paleologa, relief on the wall of the Paleologue Castle, Casale Monferrato: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Casale_monferrato

[11] Wikimedia Commons - Marital arms of Federico II Gonzaga and Margherita Paleologa on a ceramic plate, collection of International Museum of Ceramics, Faenza: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Urbino_Nicola-da-Urbino_7030.JPG

[12] Wikimedia Commons - Marital arms of Ferdinand of Austria and Anna Caterina Gonzaga on a ceramic bottle, collection of Castello di San Giorgio, Mantua: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bottega_di_don_pino_(leonardo_bettisi)

[13] I Gonzaga a Mantova website at the Internet Archive (saved on 2014-10-07): http://www.igonzaga.it/index.php/i-gonzaga-a-mantova
(image: http://www.igonzaga.it/images/Scan0011.jpg)

[14] Wikimedia Commons - The 5 lire coin of Duke Robert I of Parma: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roberto_I_di_Borbone_-_5_Lire_1858.jpg

[15] Rocculi, Gianfranco: Araldica della Real Casa Borbone Parma - lo stemma del Ducato di Parma, Piacenza e Stati annessi; Parma, 2008 (in PDF format): http://www.rocculi.it/files/pdf/09_rocculi_araldica_borboni_parma.pdf

[The above text covers only the origin of the symbol. Its introduction in Serbia is a topic better to be presented separately, so such a presentation will follow soon.]

Tomislav Todorovic, 15 June 2025