What’s Your Favorite City Symbol?
Ubiquitous in the city, the Eiffel Tower can not just be seen from almost anywhere in and around Paris, it also features on practically anything. Boxed chocolates, key chains and other paraphernelia on the blankets of street hawker, even on the shirts of the most famous football club from the city. For us, when we lived in Paris, it was our signal of having arrived home. We always played the game of who saw it first.
Paris is by far not the only city that has a symbol like that. Sometimes it’s an official piece of city heraldry, sometimes it’s born out of the culture of the people. I grew up in a city that had the stork in it’s coat of arms. It was everywhere, that stork. I might even have a tie with storks on it. Until the city decided to redesign its logo, the result of which mockingly received as an ordinary heron.
Like in Paris, the German city of Düsseldorf has a towering symbol, that can be seen from all over the city, on souvenirs and in logos of city-oriented organisations: the Rheinturm, or Rhine Tower. It’s a majestic former tv tower, that now features a restaurant with a rotating floor and from which you can see beyond the competing city of Cologne on a clear day.
In Warsaw, Poland, the symbol is not a towering building. It is a mermaid, likely to be the heroine of a legend in which she saved the city from plundering robbers. The beauty of it, is that there are many legends that are considered to be at the heart of this symbol. Syrenka Warszawska, or the Mermaid of Warsaw, features on the coat of arms of the city, on city furniture and in can, in the form of statues, be found in all corners of the city. A famous one is in the main square of Old Town, but I like the one in the picture above best.
Over in Singapore, another seemingly mythical creature symbolizes the people, city and state: the Merlion. However, there’s not a legend behind this wondrous animal of sea and land. The Merlion symbolises the origins of the city, from the fishing village Temasek, meaning ‘sea town’ t oits incarnation as city state Singapura, meaning lion’s head.
I like the stories that these symbols represent. They all tell us something about the history of a place. Something to learn when you travel (or live) there. What is your favorite city symbol?
Le Giroflier Royal loves city symbols. Follow us on instagram, where we’ll share photos of the symbols mentioned. And yours if you tag us.
