The Triumphal Arch of Emperor Maximilian and Bosnian Heraldry Emir O. Filipović

Abstract

Even the most extravagant territorial and heraldic claims of Emperor Maximilian I served the Habsburg family iconography deep into the 19th century. In accordance with their persistent ambitions, the place and importance of Bosnia and  Herzegovina in these heraldic displays did not diminish through almost five centuries. The final epilogue of this story came
only about a decade after the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austro-Hungary, when the symbols used by the Habsburgs for Bosnia were accepted as the official state symbols in 1889. The Bosnian heraldic sign then found its place in the large combined coat of arms of the Habsburg monarchy after it annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908. The fact that the Bosnian heraldic device, which included an arm with a sword, was finally selected as the symbol of Bosnia and Herzegovina under Austro- Hungarian rule, is largely due to the influence of the Habsburg heraldic monuments. The consulted historians
and experts who knew about those monuments also played a big part. Hungarian historians particularly pointed to the Bosnian coat of arms shown on the Triumphal Arch of Emperor Maximilian in their efforts to prove their theses about the necessity of adopting this symbol as the state arms of Bosnia. All of them attributed the authorship of this coat of arms to
Albrech Dürer, however, later research has shown that the author of heraldic symbols on the Triumphal Arch and on the Heraldic tower in Innsbruck was Maximilian’s court painter and architect Jörg Kölderer. The Triumphal Arch was instrumental in the final choice of the symbol with the arm and the sword as a standard Habsburg heraldic symbol for Bosnia. The
influence of this heraldic monument on the development of the Bosnian coat of arms can not be overestimated, and the fact that this symbol was chosen as the state symbol for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the end of the 19th century only testifies to the role it played in this question.