It’s true! Every Croatian wants at least a couple of thousands martens every month. Having a million martens is every Croatian’s dream…
Now, now, don’t call PETA just yet. I’m not talking about the actual animals. The word for the animal, “marten” in Croatian is kuna. The same word is the name of our currency. That’s why we love and want kunas so much. And there is a logical link between this particular animal and the money that we use today in Croatia…
Photo by Huhu Uet
This article is part of our April 2020 section “Croatian Thursday”. Every Thursday we present one aspect of our history, culture and traditions… This April 2020 all guided tours are cancelled, but Rilak’s Zagreb Guide is continuing online, with…
- Monday Report (every Monday, articles about tourism and travel industry)
- Wednesday Word – Croatia in Their Words (sharing stories about Croatia from other writers)
- Croatian Thursday (new post about our country)
- Zagreb Couch Guide – new article every Friday in our section Zagreb City Tour
Croatian currency, kuna (kn or HRK) is in use since 1994. Approximately, 1 US dollar is 6.5 kunas, 1 euro is 7.5 kunas. Although a recent currency, its name and its connection to the animal “kuna”, a marten, goes all the way to the Roman times and the Middle Ages.
Photo: 1 marten on the coin of 1 kuna. Source: Croatian National Bank.
During Roman times, in the province of Pannonia (today Hungary and Croatian region of Slavonia), taxes were collected in marten’s fur. Marten’s fur was considered highly valuable and even the Croatian Medieval word for “taxes” was marturina, coming from Medieval Latin word for “marten”, martus. Slavic and Croatian name for “marten, the animal” was kuna.
In late Middle Ages, the taxes were no longer paid in animals’ fur. Silver and gold coins started to develop. But the name stayed the same – kuna (“marten”), meaning now not only an animal but “money” or “tax” or generally “something that you have to pay”. Kuna was a currency unit in several Slavic states until the early 15th century. For many centuries, a marten remained a symbol of our Eastern region of Slavonia and can be found on the official coat of arms of the region.
Coat of arms of Slavonia.
And of course, coat of arms of Croatia is composed of a red and white checkerboard with a crown of Croatian regions, so a small marten can be found on the coat of arms and the flag of Croatia, as well.
Can you see it? It’s right there in the fifth part of the crown. Right next to a goat. Now, what’s a goat doing there? That’s a story for next Thursday…
This article is part of our April 2020 section “Croatian Thursday”. Every Thursday we present one aspect of our history, culture and traditions… This April 2020 all guided tours are cancelled, but Rilak’s Zagreb Guide is continuing online, with…
- Monday Report (every Monday, articles about tourism and travel industry)
- Wednesday Word – Croatia in Their Words (sharing stories about Croatia from other writers)
- Croatian Thursday (new post about our country)
- Zagreb Couch Guide – new article every Friday in our section Zagreb City Tour
Categories: Croatian Thursday
My distant ancestors were sheep and goat herders in that region of the world. I wonder if they ever stumbled across martens?
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it’s possible, Slavic people had this tradition of being sheep and goat herders, not only Slavic, there were many areas of the Balkans and Central Europe known for this… because of their coat of arms, today we maybe link martens more to Slavonia than to other regions or countries, but in reality martens are present all over Central Europe, maybe even more in other regions than in Slavonia itself.
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