Coat of arms of Košice

Košice (today in Slovakia; previously part of the Kingdom of Hungary and Austria-Hungary, Kassa in Hungarian, Cassovia in Latin) was the first town in Europe to be granted its own coat of arms. It was granted by King Louis I the Great at the Castle of Diósgyőr near present-day Miskolc in 1369.

The four red stripes in the coat of arms of Košice come from the medieval coat of arms of the Hungarian Árpád dynasty. The three golden fleurs-de-lis on an azure field refer to the Capetian House of Anjou dynasty, and the silver eagle to the Jagiellon dynasty.

The original coat of arms featured only the red and silver stripes and three fleur-de-lis on a blue background. The coat of arms used today is virtually unchanged since 1502.

Košice is unique in that it was the first city in Europe to gain a royal warrant for a coat of arms. The city is further unique in that by the year 1502, in the period of active heraldry, it had obtained altogether four heraldic warrants from four monarchs.

The statue of the first municipal coat of arms in Europe (the work of the eminent Slovak sculptor Arpád Račko) was inaugurated in December 2002 at Hlavná ulica (Main Street).

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