Coat of arms
Styria’s coat of arms
The Styrian panther ...
| The 1950 law gazette describes the Styrian coat of arms as follows: „The Styrian coat of arms consists of a green shield on which a silver panther with red horns and talons is shown spitting fire.“ The panther coat of arms is attested as early as 1160, when it was used by Margrave Ottokar III of the Traungau dynasty. When Styria became a dukedom twenty years later, the Traungau coat of arms was transferred to the „Green Province“.
| By 1260, the coat of arms already looked very similar to its modern appearance. In that year, the Marshall of Styria carried into battle a green banner showing a silver panther.
However, the Styrian panther does not have much in common with nature’s big cats – it has the head of a horse, the mane and tail of a lion, long, shaggy fur on its hind legs, red bull’s horns, and talons – and, in addition, it spits fire.