PRIEVIDZA CITY COAT-OF-ARMS

The city coat-of-arms identifies its owner and indicates the privileges granted to it. The city's coat-of-arms adorns all representative and official areas of the city, it is shown on all of the city's written documents and there are signs displaying it on roads leading into the city. The coat-of-arms for the City of Prievidza is recorded in the Heraldic Register maintained by the Interior Ministry of the Slovak Republic.

Prievidza's coat-of-arms is a green shield that shows an angel facing left with a golden aureole. The angel is kneeling on three rocks and holding in both hands, with its arms forward, a gold single-barred cross. Today's graphic rendition of the city's coat-of-arms was produced by painter Ladislav Čisárik, Jr. The City of Prievidza's coat-of-arms was discovered during the 15th century in a Gothic seal. The city's first symbol had been St. Bartholomew and the seal, displaying this patron saint of the parish church, was still being used in 1577, even though documents had been impressed for more than 100 years with a new city seal - an angel. The current symbol has been used by the city, almost without interruption, since the 15th century. However, during socialist times religious motifs were not desired and thus a new city coat-of-arms was established for Prievidza in 1982, showing a cutting and loading machine for mines on the upper half of the shield with three purple saffron crocuses on the bottom half. Some documents have the image of the coat-of-arms displayed on two-thirds of the parish and Piarist church towers and one-third of a mine extraction tower. But this new coat-of-arms was not very popular in the city and at the first appropriate opportunity, in 1991, the historic symbol was returned to use in Prievidza. This was the proper decision to make, as the angel with a cross has been around the longest as a symbol of the city, it is one of a kind and the fact that it is being used now pays homage to the spiritual legacy of our ancestors.