The coat of arms of Zaanstad has been formally acknowledged since 27 February 1974. The coat of arms was previously that of the jurisdictional area of Westsane en Crommenie, which now form the municipality of

Zaanstad Zaanstad () is a Dutch municipality in the province of North Holland, situated northwest of Amsterdam. Its main city is Zaandam. It is part of the conurbation and metropolitan area of Amsterdam. It had a population of in . Topography Popul ...

. These two areas were on the same areas as the municipalities who fused in 1974 to become the municipality of Zaanstad. The municipality of

Assendelft Assendelft () is a town in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is a part of the municipality of Zaanstad. Assendelft was a separate municipality until 1974, when the municipality of Zaanstad was formed. However, Assendelft didn't wan ...

alone used a coat of arms who didn't look like those of the other municipalities. The other municipalities and places (

Koog aan de Zaan Koog aan de Zaan () is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Zaanstad, and lies about 11 km northwest of Amsterdam. History Koog aan de Zaan developed in the 16th century on the western bank of ...

Krommenie Krommenie () is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Zaanstad, and lies about 15 km northeast of Haarlem. History Krommenie developed in the 11th century as a peat excavation settlement. In 1 ...

Westzaan Westzaan is a village in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Zaanstad, and lies about 13 km northeast of Haarlem. It is located west of Zaandam, Koog aan de Zaan and Zaandijk, southwest of Wormer, southea ...

Wormerveer Wormerveer is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Zaanstad, and lies about 13 km northwest of Amsterdam. Wormerveer developed in the 15th century on the west bank of the Zaan river. It starte ...

Zaandam Zaandam () is a city in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is the main city of the municipality of Zaanstad, and received city rights in 1811. It is located on the river Zaan, just north of Amsterdam. The statistical district Zaand ...

Zaandijk Zaandijk () is a town in the municipality of Zaanstad, province of North Holland, Netherlands. It lies about 11 kilometres (6.8 miles) northwest of Amsterdam and had a population of 8,686 in 2017.Statistics Netherlands (CBS), ''Statline: Kern ...

) used a coat of arms with four lions in it.

History

In the 17th and 18th century the region surrounding the

Zaan The Zaan () is a small river in the province of North Holland in the northwestern Netherlands and the name of a district through which it runs. The river was originally a side arm of the IJ bay and travels 13.5 kilometers (8½ miles) through the m ...

was very important in the whaling business. For this reason the municipality of Zaanstad uses a coat of arms with two whales as supporters. The blazon is not clear about the species of whales. Therefore, the colors are not clear, the blazon only says: ''two whales of natural color''. This led to another version of the coat of arms with two black whales as supporters, which is not incorrect in Dutch heraldry since both colours whales exist in real life. This version was published in 1989, in a coat of arms guide for Dutch municipalities issued by the

Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten BNG Bank N.V. is a Dutch bank specializing in providing financing for (semi-) publicly owned organizations. Ranked by assets alone, it is ranked as the 4th bank in the Netherlands. The Dutch state owns 50% of the company, while the remainder is o ...

. The municipality has used 3 versions of the coat of arms, between 1974 and 2009 they have uses a stylized version of the official coat of arms. The arabesque was blue, just like the whales. The shield was oval. Because the coat of arms was not like the official coat of arms more and more resistance came to its use. Since 2009 the municipality uses a coat of arms according to the description as is known at the High Council of Nobility (''Hoge Raad van Adel'').

Blazon

The blazon of the coat of arms of Zaanstad, as written down by the High Council of Nobility, is as follows: In English: Meaning, the shield is divided in four parts. In the first (for the viewer, upper left) is standing lion of silver in a red field, the second (upper right) has a standing red lion in a field of silver, the third is the same as the first, but mirrored. As is the fourth towards the second. All lions on the same levels face on another. The whales are the supporters and hold the shield with their tails. The arabesque is green. Heraldrywiki
Zaanstad
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References

{{Dutch coats of arms Zaanstad