Coat of arms of Gomel
Belarus is called a partisan republic not only for the active participation of the forest brothers in the Great Patriotic War. The forest and its inhabitants have always played a special role in the life of Belarusians, provided food, shelter, and protection. That is why the coat of arms of Gomel contains the image of a forest dweller, a formidable animal, which is one of the most beautiful inhabitants of the country's forest lands..
Indeed, the heraldic symbol of Gomel, the regional center located in the southeast of Belarus, contains an image of a lying lynx on a French shield of azure color.
Historical excursion
The modern coat of arms of the regional center does not have such a long history as the heraldic symbols of its «colleagues», Brest or the same Minsk. The earliest image of the city symbol was completely different both in terms of color and main elements..
The first coat of arms was approved by Sigismund II Augustus, the Polish king, because at that time, and this was in 1560, Gomel was part of a large European state known as the Commonwealth. The coat of arms consisted of only two elements, recorded in «Privileges of petty bourgeois Gomel»: scarlet-colored shield; silver cavalry cross.
It is interesting that the modern symbol of the city is also a shield, only in azure color, on which there is only one image. The change of city heraldic seals is associated with a change in the political situation, the entry of territories into the Russian Empire.
The generous Empress Catherine II did a good «present» Peter Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky, Russian commander, in the form of Gomel and surrounding territories. He decided that the district center should not be Gomel, but the nearby town of Novaya Belitsa.
Thanks to Peter Alexandrovich, the new district center receives its own coat of arms, which is depicted as a shield divided into two halves. In the upper part there is a part of the coat of arms of the Russian Empire in a golden field, in the lower part, azure, - a lynx, already a well-known inhabitant of the Belarusian forests.
The next owner of the territories, Prince Fyodor Paskevich, returns the powers of the county center to Gomel, but does not change the coat of arms, which has been considered a new symbol since 1855.
It operated until 1917, in principle, like the coats of arms of other cities of Belarus. Then there was a huge break, and only in 1997, the Gomel City Executive Committee decided to return this official symbol.
