Senjska uskočka i plemićka obitelj Desantić i njihovi grbovi
Senj's Uskok and noble Desantić family and their coat of arms

Summary/Abstract: The author of this article presents the aristocratic coats of arms with descriptions and important historical information about the famous Senj Uskok Desantić family. This surname in historical documents can be found in the forms: Desantič, Desantich, Desanti, De Santi, Dešantić, Desančić and De Santis. The family is originally from the island of Krk, and they gave the town of Senj several dukes and some prominent Senj Uskoks, city judges and high dignitaries. Due to great social prestige and responsibility which they showed early on they gained Senj citizenship and town patriarchs. The heraldry of the award of nobility and coat of arms was given by King Rudolf I in Prague on 12th July 1587 to Kvirin (Quirinus), Franjo and Juraj Desantić who were earlier promoted to the class of hereditary Austrian country nobility on 10th August 1579. In the Church of St. Francis in Senj, which was destroyed during Allied bombing in 1943,there is situated the gravestone with the relief of a stone coat of arms and inscription of the known Senj nobleman and duke of Senj's Uskoks Juraj Desantić, from 1707. They, therefore, possessed nobility of the Holy Roman Empire and the Austrian hereditarycountries (Nobilis Sacra et Imperii Romani Regnorumque Dominorum haereditariorum). During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Desantić family were Senj ship owners, and were included as a separate part of the Austrian Navy in the battles against the French, Spanish and Sardinian navies. Many members of this Uskok family are sung about in twenty folk songs (Erlangen manuscript). Today in Senj there are no Desantić, but on the island of Krk and there still lives in the civilbranch of the family Desantić (Desanti).

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