Coat of arms of Croatia

The coat of arms of the Republic of Croatia (Grb Republike Hrvatske) consists of one main shield and five smaller shields which form a crown over the main shield. The main coat of arms is a checkerboard (chequy) that consists of 13 red and 12 white fields. It is also informally known in Croatian as šahovnica ("chessboard", from šah, "chess"). The five smaller shields represent five different historical regions within Croatia. Croatian law describes the coat of arms as follows: The coat of arms of the Republic of Croatia is the historical Croatian coat of arms in the form of a shield twice divided horizontally and vertically into twenty-five red and white (silver) fields, so that the first field in the upper left corner is red. Above the shield lies a crown with five spikes, slightly arched with its ends conjoined with upper left and right parts of the shield. Within the crown, five lesser shields with historical Croatian coats of arms, lined from left to right in the following order: the oldest known Croatian coat of arms, coats of arms of the Dubrovnik Republic, Dalmatia, Istria and Slavonia. The ratio of height of the field of the main shield to the height of the smaller shields in the crown is 1:2.5, and of the width of the field of the main shield to the width of the smaller shields in the crown is 1:1. The oldest known coat of arms of Croatia contains in a shield on a light blue field a yellow (golden) six-pointed star with a white (silver) crescent. Coat of arms of the Republic of Dubrovnik contains in a shield on a blue field two red bars. The Dalmatian arms contain in a shield on a light blue field three yellow (golden) crowned lion heads. The Istrian arms contain in a shield on a blue field a yellow (golden) goat facing left with red hooves and horns. The Slavonian arms contain on a light blue field two horizontal white (silver) bars, between bars a red field, on which sneaks a weasel to the left. In the upper light blue field is a yellow (golden) six-pointed star. The coat of arms is lined red.