Territorial Heraldry

City Municipality of Zemun

City of Beograd, Beogradski region

Heraldically correct coat of arms Prikaži on the map

Bearer: City Municipality of Zemun
Adopted: 2005; reintroduced on 20 September 2013.
Decision: Statute of the City Municipality of Zemun (adopted on 20 September 2013; the same provisions are repeated in the statute of 28 October 2019)
Grad: City of Belgrade
Region: Belgrade Region
Eparchy: Archbishopric of Belgrade and Karlovci
Official website: zemun.rs

The City Municipality of Zemun uses arms in three levels — greater, middle and lesser — and a white flag with the arms. The basis of the arms dates from the time of Habsburg rule: a stag and a lion with a sabre face a tree growing from a green hill. The present greater arms, with two armoured men — the so-called Frontiersmen — as supporters, were introduced in 2005, briefly replaced in 2009, and restored to use by the statute of 2013. In recent decades the insignia have often been changed and various stylisations have followed one another, but the shield has remained the same in all versions.

Blazon

Shield

On a blue field a branching tree rises from a green triple mount; on the dexter side lies a stag in its natural colour facing the tree, and on the sinister a gold lion leaping, holding a curved silver sabre in its raised right paw. The statute blazons the tree as green, although in the drawing it is shown in natural colours.

Crown

A golden mural crown with five crenellations.

Supporters

Two knights in armour, the so-called Frontiersmen (Krajišnici), with plumes on their helms; each steadies the shield with one hand and in the other holds a small red shield with a silver cross and four silver firesteels.

Ribbon

A blue ribbon with the golden Cyrillic inscription “ЗЕМУН”.

Flag

A white horizontal flag in the ratio 1:2 with the arms of Zemun in the centre.

Symbolism and meaning

The stag and the lion with the sabre are taken from the arms of Srem and the Banat, and the tree between them denotes Zemun's position on the border of those two lands.

Earlier insignia

2003–2005Earlier flag
A flag adopted in December 2003, in the proportion 1:2, divided horizontally into blue and green after the colours of the town's arms — an unusually simple design for Serbian local flags of that time.
2004Earlier greater arms
A version of the greater arms with a similar shield and a gold mural crown, supported by two red and gold lions. The compartment consists of a green and a blue field separated by a white wavy line, and on the ribbon beneath it is the motto “ОДУВЕК ЗЕМУН ЗАУВЕК” (“Zemun since always, for ever”).
2005–2009Earlier flag
In 2005 the municipality altered the arms and flag. In the greater arms the lions were replaced by two armoured men with small red shields bearing the Serbian cross and firesteels, the motto on the ribbon was replaced by the name of the municipality, and the compartment was omitted; the middle arms were not in use in that period. The flag, of unknown proportions, was white with the greater arms and was used both indoors and outdoors. The then mayor, Gordana Pop Lazić, justified the changes as corrections to the old drawing, in which, among other things, the stag had a beard, while opponents pointed out that there had never been a warrior in the historical arms of Zemun.
2009–2013Earlier coat of arms and flag
By the statute adopted by the interim council on 6 April 2009 the arms were reduced to the shield with a gold mural crown of five crenellations and a blue ribbon with the inscription “ЗЕМУН”, without supporters. The flag was white, horizontal, in the proportion 1:2, with the arms.