Town Symbols

The official description of an emblem: In a red coat-of-arms there is a silver double - tailed lion without a crown,turned right in a jump,and above it there are silver crossed keys with the bits up and turned out.

     In the course of centuries the Prachatice town emblem has gone through the certain development,the first figures of the town emblem are in the town seals from the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th centuries.
     The present town emblem has been used since 1936.The crossed Vyšehrad keys stand for the Vyšehrad Chapter which used to be its lordship at the beginning of the existence of the town.The white Czech lion appeared in the emblem in 1493 when Emperor Fridrich III improved the Prachatice emblem with this heraldic figure.
     In the emblem of the town there is a lion in a jump = a heraldic animal.There is a principal in heraldry the animals are never drawn in their zoological look,but always in a conventionalized way. An imporatnt rule is these figures should fill in the coat-of-arms (the field of a coat-of-arms) as much as possible,that`s why the single parts of their body reach up to the edges of the coat-of-arms,but they don`t touch it if it isn`t set down.All the animals are drawn according to their character and nature with the stress on the strength, courage, warlikeness and manfulness ( male sexual organs are pictured too).It`s for that reason these signs should originally served for frightening the enemies by their appearance,later on for the demonstration of the strength and power.The position of an animal in a coat-of-arms is imporatnt too.The quadrupeds are pictured in a jump when the animal is reared up on the rear legs with the front right leg held up.The heraldic creature always steps forward with the right leg.
     Another component of the emblem - the keys are the symbol of (high) priest power binding and unbinding according to the St.Mattew`s Gospel: "I am going to give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven,what you bound on the ground it will be bound in the Heaven,and what you unbound on the ground will be unbound in the Heaven."By these words Jesus Christ took over the highest authority to St.Peter,the same authority which is in a more or less limited degree given to all the priest.
     In the heraldry the keys can be found mainly in the emblems of popes.They are drawn with the eyes down and with the bits up which are turned out.
     The emblem of the Vyšehrad Chapter has 2 keys,but different from those ones of the emblem of Prachatice.

We are quotating the more detailed datas about the history of the Prachatice town emblem from the publication by Jiří Čarek - The Town Emblems in Czech Countries published in 1985:

     Prachatice is verified as a town already at the beginning of the 14th century.In its oldest protected seal there is a picture of St.Peter according to the consecration of the Vyšehrad temple.That is to say the Vyšehrad Chapter used to be the lordship of the town Prachatice.The younger seal from 1412 carries the picture of St.James (the consecration of the church) between two signs,ie. of the Vyšehrad Chapter and the royal lion.The third Gothic seal maybe from the first half of the 15th century has in its coat-of arms a fortification wall with a gate and two towers between which there was a small shield with crossed Vyšehrad keys.Above the small shield there are two stars.The time classification of this seal isn`t sure,because only its imprint has been protected in the Eichler`s collection in the Archives of the National Museum.
     In the Hussite period the town Prachatice temporarily used the seals with the picture of a goblet ,a lance and a ladder,everything wreathed by the thorny crown,it means the seals similar to the seals of the town Tábor.In this case the matter wasn`t probably the emblem,but again the sealing sign.Because of the unsuitability of this sign for an emblem and because of the complexity of the sign with a fortification,towers and a coat-of-arms of a Chapter which stopped to be the lordship of Prachatice,in the 15th century Prachatice chose as an emblem only the red coat-of-arms with white crossed keys which lost their original sense.In this way its emblem is characterized by the text of the privilege of Fridrich III of July 5,1493.By this privilege the emperor improved the just described emblem of Prachatice and he completed its coat-of-arms with a white Czech lion in the jump right with an open muzzle and a tongue put out under the keys.Since that time until the 18th century the emblem of the town Prachatice was a red coat-of-arms with a white Czech lion and with two white crossed keys above it.
     Perhaps at some time in the 18th century maybe according to the model of an old Gothic sealing-stick with a fortification and towers its original sign was revived and the town put it again in the seal and it painted it as a sign with colours like this: In a blue coat-of-arms there is a silver fortification wall with a battlement and an open gate with a gold pulled up bars. Behind the fortification there stood up two silver towers with red roofs and gold heads,each of them with one big window.Between the towers there is a small red shield with crossed silver keys.This coat-of arms was generally used until the 19th century.But in 1881 a new coat-of-arms was put on the new town hall,no doubt made by painter J.Messner.Actually it is a connection of both forms of the coat-of-arms,because it has the appearance with a gate and towers used at that time,but on the small shield there are keys and under them there is a lion.This form introduced by itself was used till 1936.
     Then after the victory in the election and inauguration of the first Czech Mayor Otto Chadraba, the Czech leadership of the town immediately asked for the change of an emblem, namely back into the appearance of the year 1493 in which in the coat-of-arms there prevailed the Czech lion.The new Czech leadership probably gave this emblem a new sense and it saw in it a symbol of its victory,of the victory of the Czech people over the fascist administration of the town.That`s why it was used permanently at once after its registration on March 5, 1936.The Ministry of Internal Affairs didn`t have any objections to the change,it only asked the more perfect pattern painting and it promised the certification.The discussion dragged until 1938,it was re-open during the occupation,but it didn`t come to the end.In spite of it the emblem with the lion and the keys has been used with the knowledge of the promise of certification permanently until the latest time.This sign of the victory of the Czech people is a respectable symbol even today.