[image ALT: Much of my site will be useless to you if you've got the images turned off!]

The Coat of Arms of Citerna

[image ALT: A coat of arms depicting a well, and behind it a shadoof or asilla.]

A landscape with a round well of white stone and a coping of ochre bricks, flanked sinister by a forked tree couped, in the fork of which a water carrier's yoke with a brown handled pot at each end, all proper; the dexter pot hanging over the well flanked by two mullets or.

20c tile on the façade of a building
in the frazione of Pistrino.

I have for now no strict information on the origin, meaning or date of these arms, although as a general rule naturalistic arms are very late. Here we have a bit of a mixture: everything naturalistic except for the very heraldic mullets, which in the absence of further information for now, I'm going to suspect of having been the original arms.

It is clear, however, that the well is intended to remind you of the placename Citerna, a cistern. This is probably a case of punning arms rather than due to any actual cistern since the origin of the name Citerna is unknown: while a Latin cisterna or cistern appears likely, it is not attested, and at least one scholar (G. Donnini) has maintained that the placename is a corruption of Citerone.

Note also the water-carrier's yoke: it is a very old device, going back to Greek and Roman antiquity, and before that to the Egyptians. The well itself as shown in this instance of the arms is of a general type seen thruout Umbria.

Images with borders lead to more information.
The thicker the border, the more information. (Details here.)

UP TO:

Citerna

Umbria

Italy

Home

A page or image on this site is in the public domain ONLY if its URL has a total of one *asterisk. If the URL has two **asterisks, the item is copyright someone else, and used by permission or fair use. If the URL has none the item is © Bill Thayer.