На русском языке:
Дева Мария, Погоня и ключ. История геральдики города Менска
На беларускай мове:
Дзева Марыя, «Пагоня» і ключ. Гісторыя геральдыкі горада Менска
Exactly 30 years ago, on September 5, 1991, the Minsk City Council of People’s Deputies adopted decision №167, which proclaimed the return of its historical coat of arms and historical name – Miensk– to the city.
Unfortunately, the name Miensk was not returned, the Supreme Soviet lacked 31 votes to approve this decision. But the decision to return the historical coat of arms of 1591 to the city was made.
This is how the coat of arms of Minsk of 1591-1790 looked on the seal of the magistrate.
Photo: minsk-old-new
Here it is worth saying that the modern coat of arms of Minsk is slightly different from the historical coat of arms, which Minsk received on January 12, 1591 according to the confirmatory preponderance of Sigismund III, the king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, by which he confirmed the Magdeburg right, which said: «надаемъ имъ на гербъ до печати местъское на ратушъ фикгуру внебовзятья панъны Марыи». As in the modern version, there was a picture of the Ascension of Mary, but in addition to this, there was an inscription in Latin on the bottom: «sicilivm civitatis minscvnsis».
Seal of Miensk of 1770
Photo: minsk-old-new
At one time, the seals of Minsk depicted another religious subject, not the Ascension of Mary, but the Coronation of the Virgin. As an example, the seal of Mensk of 1770, which also had a circular inscription: «The seal of the Ascension by the clear king Sigismund August to the city of Minsk in 1552 was granted and restored in 1770».
In 1793, as a result of the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Minsk departed to the Russian Empire and during this period, the historical coat of arms of Minsk was placed on the chest of a double-headed eagle, this was done, so to speak, to indicate «the accession and citizenship of the region to the Russian Empire».
Coat of arms of Minsk during the Russian Empire period.
Photo: heraldicum
In the last decades of the XIX century, the city coat of arms was almost everywhere replaced by the coat of arms of the Minsk province, which was radically different from the historical one. More precisely, it had nothing in common with it at all, it was 3 wavy azure stripes on a golden shield.
Coat of arms of Minsk province approved in 1878.
Photo: minsk-old-new
These stripes were later used as the city coat of arms of Minsk in the USSR too, it can be assumed that they were used due to the «politically correct content»: neither religious symbols, nor monarchical …
But there is another option, which can not be said, it was not used at all, but it is worth mentioning. In 1968, the Volgograd plant Souvenir released a badge depicting the project of the coat of arms of Minsk, where a stylized key and three waves were depicted on a red background.
Coat of arms on tourist badges in the 1980s
Badge with the project of the coat of arms of Minsk from the plant Souvenir
Was Pahonia the coat of arms of Minsk?
Most likely, yes. In the work of the Polish historian Bartosz Paprocki «Gnyazdo tsnoty…» (1578), the coat of arms of the Minsk Voivodeship and separately the coat of arms of Minsk are given, both with the image of the national coat of arms of the Belarusians — Pahonia.
Coat of arms of the Minsk Voivodeship and Minsk
in the work of Bartosz Paprocki «Gnyazdo tsnoty…» (1578)
Also, Pahonia is present on the seal of the appellate courts of the city of Minsk in 1791.
Seal of the appellate courts of Minsk, 1791
The article uses materials from the article by Vladimir Volozhinsky «City coat of arms» and the article heraldicum about the city coat of arms.
