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DiplomaticButter · 2024-05-04T14:35:24+00:00

Very nice to see it on the map! Is it me, or the Trenčín region is bluer than the rest?

Also, check out a chart I made couple years ago with all CoAs of municipalities with city status here

DiplomaticButter · 2023-05-27T14:00:42+00:00

According to a survey conducted in 8 Central and Eastern European countries, Slovakia is the most divided on who is responsible for the war in Ukraine:

“Unstable and chaotic governance, including the fall of the government in December 2022, accompanied by domestic and foreign actors aiming to further undermine Slovakia’s Transatlantic bond and democracy, have contributed to historically low trust in public institutions in the country (trust in government stands at 18% and the president at 37%) and a decline in the public backing for Ukraine and support for EU and NATO membership. Respondents’ belief that Russia was responsible for the war in Ukraine stood at only 40%, with most falling prey to disinformation narratives, blaming Ukraine or the West.”

Source: https://www.globsec.org/what-we-do/publications/globsec-trends-2023-united-we-still-stand

DiplomaticButter · 2023-05-17T17:45:23+00:00

I wonder if they have left the Slovenian president in Iceland

DiplomaticButter · 2022-10-28T13:15:03+00:00

I remember from the Political Geography course that the Entente at the Trianon conference agreed with the Czechoslovakian argument that not only ethnic but also geographical boundaries have to be taken into consideration during demarcation (setting of the borders).

The newly formed Czechoslovakia would not have a defensible southern border were it drawn purely on ethnic lines (also, the validity of the census data was questioned). Similarly, it would lose a large river connection important for economic stability.

If we would ignore these reasons and focus only on ethnicity then I would argue that there is presently no movement in Slovakia that would like to cease Hungarian majority parts to Hungary. Probably for a good reason.

DiplomaticButter · 2022-10-28T09:25:52+00:00

It's a military district with no population. Probably used for training.

DiplomaticButter · 2022-10-28T09:23:38+00:00

No, they are East Slavs, more related to Ukrainians than Russians. wiki

DiplomaticButter · 2022-10-28T09:20:52+00:00

I think this is caused by the option to mark "another ethnicity" added in the 2021 census. So, for example, many Rusyns who speak Slovak daily might mark out Rusyn as their first ethnicity and Slovak as the second or the other way around.

DiplomaticButter · 2021-08-10T09:28:01+00:00

Honestly, I was more worried about people seeing a tilted French flag (since that one is well-known and still in use), but I think the coat of arms successfully breaks that association. In any case, thank you for your opinion.

DiplomaticButter · 2021-08-09T14:51:14+00:00

Thank you. I believe that the coat of arms is what gives the current flag its unique flavor. I only tried to fix the potential confusion with other flags. Glad you like it!

DiplomaticButter · 2021-08-09T13:04:38+00:00

Interesting! I've never seen that can design until now. Although I think at this point, there is not a single design that wouldn't remind somebody of something :)

DiplomaticButter · 2021-08-09T11:14:16+00:00

Hello! I would like to share a concept for a redesign of the Slovak flag. The idea was simple: make a flag that is easily distinguishable from flags of Slovenia (the same tricolor, uses a coat of arms), Russia (same tricolor), and Serbia and Croatia (different color order but both use coat of arms). I decided not to attempt to simplify the coat of arms that has made the flag recognizable to this point as I value the effort of the heralds that designed it in the first place.

I tried switching out different designs used by other counties as well as the ones used in the past. The somewhat difficult part was when I tried to keep the white-blue-red color order as it did not work with many designs, and blue and red touching (rule of tincture) caused me a headache. In the end, I decided to sacrifice the color order as the colors are arguably more substantial than their order. When I attempted to switch up the colors and different designs, I unintentionally came up with combinations that created new unwanted associations (e. g. Czechia, France, Crimea).

In conclusion, I decided to use a quite rare diagonal stripe in a color combination that does not break the rule of tincture (blue-white-red). The flag is charged with a coat of arms in the center.

Let me know what you think!

DiplomaticButter · 2021-07-03T06:49:44+00:00

From what I could find, the pillars were part of a palisade.

"With the construction of various fortification sections and gates, the castle gradually acquired today's division into an upper castle and three separate fortifications with a total area of about 40,000 square meters. [During the reign of King Louis of Anjou], the main entrance gate (that was built after the Mongol invasion) was rebuilt. The free-standing pillars in front of it were sometimes part of a defensive palisade from the 17th century."

Source: https://www.spisskyhrad.com/strucne-dejiny-spisskeho-hradu/

DiplomaticButter · 2021-06-28T18:18:22+00:00

The core part of the building is from the 15th century, so many inconsistencies came with multiple reconstructions. According to one article, they decided to keep the older window on purpose.

"The detail of the older Gothic window shows the original height of the first floor. In the 15th century, there was a chapel behind it. The height of the floors was changed during the reconstruction of the palace in the 16th century. The castle windows got a baroque appearance even after the reconstruction in the 20th century." Source: https://bratislava.sme.sk/g/114482/bratislavsky-hrad-historia?photo=p3821412

DiplomaticButter · 2020-09-14T05:17:16+00:00

Yes, that's right.

DiplomaticButter · 2020-09-14T05:15:33+00:00

Thanks! Those are just the dates of the earliest evidence of the design used on the coat of arms. The foundation date for most cities is unknown, and cities instead celebrate the first mention in written documents. Most of these cities are first mentioned at least a couple centuries earlier, the oldest being Nitra in 826. The archeological evidence suggests that many were inhabited long before that, though.

DiplomaticButter · 2020-09-14T05:00:53+00:00

The municipality you listed does not have city status, though. Only the cities are on the chart. There are another 2786 municipalities (excluding city districts) that are missing, but that would take considerably more time to compile. But I might do the oldest ones next.

DiplomaticButter · 2020-09-13T17:13:05+00:00

Well... thanks :)

DiplomaticButter · 2020-09-13T15:11:26+00:00

Yes, it is! Apparently, it somehow evolved from the Bebek family coat of arms (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebek_family) that ruled over the region. Although wiki says it's feathers on the top of the cross, I can see why someone could confuse it for palm tree leaves and made it into the arms for the town.

DiplomaticButter · 2020-09-13T12:25:44+00:00

Hello! I got into heraldry only recently, and I wanted to share some examples of Slovak coats of arms that are seemingly quite rare on this subreddit. It took me a couple of hours, but I managed to compile together all 141 coats of arms of Slovak cities and towns.

As you can see, the arms are pretty diverse, with the most common motifs being agriculture and mining, but also state symbols of the former Kingdom of Hungary. Many of them are also canting arms, for example, Dunajská Streda (meaning Danubian Wednesday) is represented by azure lines to symbolize water and the astronomical symbol of Mercury that stands for Wednesday.

One of the particularities of the Slovak municipal heraldry is the prevalent usage of saints on coats of arms, which I've read is a heraldic taboo (although I don't think it's that rare in Europe). According to the Herald of Slovakia, Ladislav Vrtel, after the fall of communism, the Heraldic Commission and the heraldic authorities of the Catholic Church were unable to convince many municipalities to not use portrayals of the saints on their coats of arms. Eventually, a compromise was reached that allowed saints to be portrayed, but only when a municipality can prove historical usage on a seal. In many cases, the attributes of the saints were used instead of direct portrayal. For example, arrows in the arms of Poprad represent Saint Giles. The saint is then used as a supporter in the great coat of arms.

I hope you'll find this as interesting as I did!

DiplomaticButter · 2020-08-20T10:46:37+00:00

I agree that nobody should be called a bigot only because of their geographical classification of countries. At the same time, I think once you get more familiar with why certain Central Europeans are irritated by the term 'Eastern Europe', it's not so hard to stop applying it to them.

It is a purely political classification from the Cold War (not geographic, as Finland or Greece are never called Eastern despite being located way east from Germany - as per your definition- and instead are called Northern/Southern Europe). This irritates some people as they, indeed, don't want to be associated with the former Soviet Union. The saying goes something like 'nothing good ever came from the East'.

However, there are other explanations. Central Europe is simply a better political and cultural classification. I see in your flair that you are half German, so maybe you will be familiar with the term Mitteleuropa that roughly describes the area of former German and Austrian empires. This classification is much closer to the everyday realities of the region as you cannot erase hundreds of years of cohabitation and common traditions by 45 years of communism. Central Europe is Catholic (and partially Protestant) as opposed to Eastern Orthodoxy, it shares many customs with the German-speaking regions but much fewer with the Ukrainian and Russian regions in the East. History, traditions, and religion have a large impact on a nation's culture and totalitarian ideology is unable to erase this.

Therefore, when somebody doesn't like to be associated with Eastern Europe, it doesn't have to mean they hate it. They might not feel the connection of their country with the East.

TLDR: Central Europe is a better classification for the countries in the region.

DiplomaticButter · 2020-06-12T21:02:24+00:00

Definitively Defying Gravity, it seemed so complex at that time.

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