Coat of arms of Malmö
Malmö’s arms show a red, crowned griffin’s head on silver; the city received its armorial grant in 1437.
Swedish description in the Heraldica record
I fält av silver ett rött griphuvud krönt av guld.
This is the Swedish description in the Heraldica record. How it was composed and whether it is an official blazon have not been independently verified. The editorial text below is based on the linked source.
Designers
- Vladimir A. Sagerlund
Registration and history
- 23 April 1437: Royal confirmation on
- 11 January 1974: Registered at the National Board of Patents and Registration
The griffin’s head
The shield of the municipal arms shows a red griffin’s head crowned in gold on a silver field. In 1437, Erik of Pomerania granted Malmö an armorial letter featuring a crowned griffin’s head.
From medieval city arms to municipal arms
Malmö says the griffin was originally a dynastic symbol of the dukes of Pomerania. Erik of Pomerania granted the city the griffin’s head from his own arms in 1437. According to the city, the seal was first used in 1438, and the arms were registered as municipal arms in 1974. The current city logo also includes green pillars forming an M, separate from the coat of arms itself.
Heraldic elements
The heraldic elements are identified using HERO, a heraldry ontology published through Finland's Finto service. It provides structured terminology for describing coats of arms and their components. The list describes the structure of the arms, not the symbolic meaning of its elements.
- escutcheon
- field
- Or
- Argent
- Gules
- griffin's head
- unpartitioned
Sources and image rights
Heraldica / National Archives of Finland · Wikidata
Image licence: CC BY-SA 3.0
Image source and credit: National Archives of Sweden / Vladimir Sagerlund
Original image. The image has been resized and converted to WebP. The derivative retains the original image’s licence.
