Kanjiza Flag

Kanjiza Flag

Kanjiža is a town in the north of Serbia on the border with Hungary. Most of its inhabitants are ethnic Hungarians. The flag and arms of the town include a shield and a cross.

Shield

The shield shows a border guard holding up a sword in his right hand, and in his left, a hand-plough. The meaning could be:

• "Dare to cross this border and I'll slice you up and plough you into the fields."

or, since Serbians tend to be more friendly than that, and since Serbia is famed for its delicious raspberries (although not especially in Kanjiža):

• "Welcome! Let me slice off a bunch of raspberries for you."

or something else.

In other words, we don't know the history of the border guard image, if indeed there is one to know.

Cross

The reason for choosing a blue diagonal cross is even less clear. The Hungarian flag is a tricolour of red/white/green and the Serbian tricolour is red/blue/white. The colours red and white are common to both flags, so the blue colour identifies Serbia. This is significant for a town where the vast majority of residents have Hungarian roots.

The diagonal cross may be from an older coat of arms with a blue saltire, like the St. Andrew's Cross, or just two blue stripes that happen to cross each other.

Go back to the main Serbian Cross page.

For an excellent site giving more detailed information about Serbian flags, see: zastave-grbovi.com, and for flags in general, a very good flag locator is at: flagid.org