Kriens

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KRIENS

Canton : Luzern

Official blazon

Origin/meaning

The arms show the patron saint St. Gallus and the bear, his symbol, to which he gives a piece of bread. Normally only the bear is used on arms as symbol of St. Gallus, the arms of Kriens are the only exception. According to legend a bear helped St. Gallus to collect wood in the forest.

In 2017 Kriens became a city-municipality and thus wanted to change the corporate identity. The arms were also redesigned with regard to the type of bread the saint was handing to the bear. The old version showed a round-type bread, known as a St. Gallen-bread. A second version shows the local Luzerner Weggen bread, the final version an undefined type of bread.

The official version of the arms until 2017

The first proposal to change the arms in 2017

The change spurred a discussion in the town, which also involved the size and shape of the bear, which, from a heraldic point of view, is not relevant, as each artist may show it differently anyway. The type of bread, however, has a characteristic shape.

Historically the bread has never been described and thus has been shown in a number of variations. As the saint lived much earlier as the existence of the village ans its arms, the bread historically can never have been the Luzerner Wegge. As a local symbol, however, it would be a good attribute. In the end the decision was made not to have a specific type of bread.

There are two legends regarding the bread; the first is that St. Gallus, when confronted with the sudden appearance of a bear, asked him to trow some wood in the fire.As a reward the bear received some bread and was asked not to return. In the second legend the saint provides some bread to a bear and then asked the bear to built a monastery, the St. Gallen Abbey.