Povijesne zastave

In the permanent exhibition of the Trakošćan Castle there are six historical flags from the legacy of the counts of Drašković.

This is the oldest flag of the Austrian imperial army dating from the second half of the sixteenth century. It has a square form and is made of double dark red brocade fabric, richly embellished with heraldic, symbolic and vegetative motifs, and rimmed with fringes. The obverse depicts two knights above which is the inscription Deo quae dei et Caesari quae caesaris, which, roughly translated, would mean: „To God what is God's, to Caesar what is Caesar's“. The reverse has a heraldic depiction of the crowned Austrian imperial two-headed eagle with a golden shield, a white bar on its chest and a scepter and a sword in its claws.

It may be assumed that this is the flag of the military units commanded by bans of the Drašković family in the seventeenth century. By its type and the time of its origin this flag is unique in Croatia and is among the oldest preserved flags in general.