Heraldry

The Town

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