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The Warsaw Mermaid

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Warsaw's Coat of Arms
Warsaw's Coat of Arms

Warsaw's Coat of Arms

CC BY-NC-ND jaime.silva
Warsaw's coat of arms features the mermaid on a red background, her sword arm raised and her other hand holding a round shield. A crown floats above the image.

Warsaw's coat of arms did not always appear this way. Over the course of centuries, the city's coat of arms have evolved from a mythical man-dragon hybrid into the woman-fish hybrid of the mermaid. The mermaid began to be used as an emblem of the city in the 17th century, but the coat of arms currently in use did not come into existence until 1938.

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