Another early example of evidence of documented heraldy is in the great east window of Gloucester Cathedral which is described as the earliest war memorial in England. It was installed by one of the warriors of Agincourt and contains at the base the coats of arms of some of the fighters who were there in [...]
When did the use of coats of arms begin? It is fairly safe to say, in Western Europe in the 12th century. In the 12th century however no daily journals were published and the few historians were monks who did not go out of their way to chronicle things unless they were of enormous national importance or were concerned with the affairs of the monastery.
This Majestic example of Spanish architechture, incorporating both the Moorish and Medieval Catholic traditions is situated in the picturesque province of Castile-Leon, Northwest of Madrid. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the old city of Segovia is spectacularly situated atop a long, narrow promontory. It contains a wealth of monuments, including a cathedral, a magnificent ancient Roman aqueduct, and the beautiful fairy-tale spires of the Alcázar, or castle-palace, that towers over the countryside below.
Heraldry is essentially medieval in origin and is associated with all of the images we conjure up when the Middle Ages come to mind. Knights in shining armor, castles, lovely ladies, princes and princesses, damsels in distress, tournaments, dragons, giants, all the apparatus of old romance, yes it is with things such as these that heraldry is linked.
Work was begun on the current Gravensteen building in 1180, on the site of an earlier castle. The building was modelled on the crusader castles in the Holy Land, and the massive fortifications still ooze power. The fortress was left empty and semi-derelict for some time, and during the industrial revolution some of its vast halls were used as loom-filled factories for the local cloth industry. It has now been restored and renovated, and the display of gruesome torture equipment (including a guillotine with one of the original blades) certainly looks ready for business!
Wandersleben Germany Coat of Arms Description The main shield is divided into a blue and a silver region. The upper region contains a gold shearing hook. The lower region contains a red heart, inside of which there is a small silver shield with a black cross. The helmet is depicted with red and silver [...]
The subject of Heraldry has been shrouded in mystery partly due to obfuscation on the part of writers on the subject and partly due to it’s origin in the language of heraldry, which is a language not used in the vernacular and created solely for the purpose of describing Blazon’s or descriptions of Arms. The [...]
Humankind has created numerous systems of signs since the dawn of time for communication and assimilation of information. Today it is difficult to imagine past and present civilizations without ancient hieroglyphics, letters, numbers, allegorical figures, road signs, morse code and other sets of unified symbols. Coats of Arms, which first appeared in the Middle Ages [...]
