Jelgavas pilsētas ģerbnonis gadsimtu gaitā
The Jelgava Town Emblem over the Centuries

Summary/Abstract: In 1893 historian Leonid Arbuzov published the oldest known picture of the Jelgava town emblem found on a sealed document from 1589; the first overview of the Jelgava town emblem is included in Konstantin Mettig’s article dealing with the emblems of Kurzeme (Courland) towns. In 1914 Jelgava Town Mayor Gustavs Šmits published an article on the development of the emblem in the 19th century but historian Arveds Švābe was the first to provide information on the town charter received by Jelgava in 1753 and an engraving of the town seal in 1574. Duke Gotthard Kettler had granted part of his coat of arms – the elk’s head of Zemgale – to be included in the Jelgava town seal. The Duke’s first coat of arms was created in 1565 but on 4 August 1579 Stephen Bathory, the King of Poland, approved the changes to the Duke’s coat of arms. The wolf’s jaw, the symbol of the Bathory family, appeared as a sign of the King’s favour alongside the monogram in the middle shield. Since the very first coats of arms, the elk’s figure was not depicted consistently and often appeared as a deer. A deer instead of an elk was also found in the stone carving placed on the Town Hall façade. Stylistic features point to the period after 1686 when Jelgava Town Council purchased a building in the marketplace from Duke Friedrich Kasimir, which was to become the Town Hall. However, the scrollwork ornament of the inscription table would suggest a date for the carving from the late 16th century or the 1st third of the 17th century. The Town Hall was located in the centre of the marketplace but was pulled down in the 1650s. Changes in the Duke’s coat of arms from 1579 modified the town emblem as well; a new town seal was created – the elk carrying on its neck the middle shield of the Duke’s coat of arms with the Kettlers’ pot hook, the crowned monogram SA and the Bathory family wolf’s jaw. The subsequent variations in the town emblem depended on political events. In 1737 when Duke Ernst Johann von Biron ascended to the throne of Courland-Semigallia, the Jelgava town emblem was supplemented with some elements from the Biron family coat of arms. After Ernst Johan was arrested and sent into exile in 1740, his coat of arms disappeared from the Jelgava town emblem. Karl, the Prince of Saxony, who was appointed to the throne of Courland from 1759 to 1762, brought changes to the town emblem as well – the main figure of the Wettin dynasty of Saxony, the so-called Rautenkranz. Later the Biron family elements reappeared on the shield on the elk’s neck. After Courland was annexed to the Russian empire, the two-headed Russian eagle appeared on the elk’s neck in 1789. The Jelgava town emblem retained this form till the 1830s. On 11 March 1846 the tsar’s order on Courland town emblems was approved; the new emblem was included in the set of laws of the Russian empire.

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