Heraldry
The Slovak Republic's Ministry of
Interior's Committee of Heraldry discussed the proposal of the village's coat
of arms and accepted it to be included in the Slovak Republic's Catalogue of
Crests. On the red shield there is a silver pillow with a crown on its top. The
crown is decorated with golden and silver pearls and precious stones.
The flag
is divided into 4 bands: red (1/8), golden (3/8), silver (3/8) and red (1/8).
The proportion of the flags width and length is 2:3. The symbols of the village
can be found in the Slovak Republic's Catalogue of Crests under the note
V-79/96. The historical name of the village is Hodos. The name Vydrany was
taken up in 1948.About its historical progress we don`t have enough
information. It is first mentioned in 1245 in a certificate. At the end of the
thirteenth century the Hodossys were the owners. In the period 1938-1945 it was
part of Hungary. Its certain that this village has had a lively history. About
that we don`t know yet anything. We have concrete information from the
nineteenth century onwards. These are mostly statistical facts - about houses
and the numbers of inhabitants.
The village burned to ashes in 1884. On a seal
from 1854 a pillow with a crown on its top can be seen. The text on it says:
The Seal of the village Nemes Hodos. This seal was used by the village until
the July of 1913. The village saw the crown of King Stephen 1 as its symbol.
Its proof is a letter from 1910. From the letter we learn that the residents of
Hodos, who in 1287 became nobles and fought under the flag of the king, have
been using the crown as their symbol since the early middle ages. The
archivists of Budapest accepted the claim that the Holy Crown was on the seal
of the village in 1854, but they didn`t find any records about Hodos using this
symbol pre-1854. At the beginning of our century in Budapest was decided about
every symbol and name of the villages of Pozsony County. That's why Hodos
applied for the continued use of the seal. The archivists from Bufapest decided:
Nobody can use the symbol of the Republic, so on the new seal there must be a
common crown. The village accepted the decision and on 23 July 1913 unveiled
the new seal: On the red shield is a silver pillow.
On the pillow there is a
golden crown. The text on the seal says: Pozsony County Nemeshodos Village,
1910. the date shows the year when the village got its official name. The seal
was made by engraver Ignác Felsenfeld. The village had to give up its former
symbol. They fulfilled this request. It can be found in the National Regional
Archive in Pozsony. Should we have to decide the looks of the crest, the offer
of the keepers of records from Budapest comes to the front: On the red shield
is a silver (white) pillow with three golden (yellow) decorations. On the
pillow there is a golden (yellow) crown. In the future we have got three tasks:
Finding the oldest seal of the village, historically evaluating it and verify,
why chose the village in 1854 the crown as its symbol
PhDr. Peter Kartous, CSc.
President of the Slovak Republic's Ministry of Interior's Committee of Heraldry