The idea behind the design of the coat of arms of Romania dates from 1859, when the two Romanian countries, Wallachia and Moldavia, united under Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza. Then the two heraldic symbols, the golden aquila and the aurochs, were officially juxtaposed. Until 1866, there were many variants of the coat of arms, regarding the background color and the number of times the two main elements where represented. In 1866, after Carol I was elected Prince of Romania, the shield was divided into quarters: in the first and fourth an eagle was depicted, and in the second and third the aurochs; above the shield the arms of the reigning Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen family was placed. After 1872, the coat of arms included the symbol of southern Bessarabia, two dolphins, in the fourth quarter; and the one of Oltenia, a golden lion, in the third quarter; on the shield the Steel Crown was placed, as a symbol of sovereignty and independence, after the Romanian War of Independence. The coat of arms remained unchanged until 1922, after World War I, when Transylvania was united with the Kingdom of Romania. Then the coat of arms of Transylvania was placed in the fourth quarter, with the Turul replaced by a black aquila, the third quarter depicted the joined coats of arms of Banat and Oltenia, and the coat of arms of Dobruja was placed in an insertion. The shield was placed on the chest of a golden crossed and crowned aquila, as a symbol of the Latinity of the Romanians. The aquila was placed on a blue shield, capped with the Steel Crown. The coat of arms had three versions: lesser, middle, and greater. After 1948, the Communist authorities changed both the flag and the coat of arms. The coat of arms was rather an emblem, faithful to the Communist pattern: a landscape surrounded by stocks of wheat tied together with a cloth in the colors of the national flag. Until 1989, there were four variants, the first being changed shortly after 1948, again changed in 1956, and finally in 1966, when Romania ceased to be a People's Republic and became a Socialist Republic. Immediately after the 1989 Revolution, the idea came up of giving Romania a new, representative coat of arms. In fact, the very symbol of the Revolution was the flag with a hole in its middle where the communist coat of arms had been cut out. The heraldic commission set up to design a new coat of arms for Romania worked intensely, subjecting to the Parliament two final designs which were then combined. What emerged is the current design adopted by the two chambers of the Romanian Parliament in their joint session on September 10, 1992. In April 2016, deputies of the Judiciary Committee endorsed a bill voted previously by the Senate that returns the crown on the head of the eagle and mandates the public authorities to replace the existing emblems and seals to those provided by law until 31 December 2018. The bill was adopted by the Chamber of Deputies on 8 June 2016 and promulgated by President Klaus Iohannis on 11 July 2016.
Description
The shield surmounting the eagle is divided into five fields, one for each historical province of Romania with its traditional symbol:
Romania’s coat of arms has as a central element the golden aquila holding an Orthodox cross. Traditionally, this eagle appears in the arms of the Argeș county, the town of Pitești and the town of Curtea de Argeș. It stands for the “nest of the Basarabs”, the nucleus around which Wallachia was organised. Since July 11, 2016 the coat of arms has been altered to include the heraldic representation of the Steel Crown of King Carol. A symbol of its royal past and a token for the period during 1881 and 1947 when Romania was de facto and de jure a monarchy, ruled by the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen house through its Romanian branch, founded by Carol. The aquila, being the symbol of Latinity and a heraldic bird of the first order, symbolises courage, determination, the soaring toward great heights, power, grandeur. It is to be found also in Transylvania's coat of arms. The shield on which it is placed is azure, symbolising the sky. The eagle holds in its talons the insignia of sovereignty: a mace and a sword, the latter reminding of Moldavia’s ruler, Stephen the Great whereas the mace reminds of Michael the Brave, the first unifier of the Romanian Countries. On the bird's chest there is a quartered escutcheon with the symbols of the historical Romanian provinces as well as two dolphins reminding of the country's Black Sea Coast. In the first quarter, Wallachia's coat of arms, an aquila or holding in its beak a golden Orthodox cross, accompanied by a golden sun on the right and a golden new moon on the left, is displayed against an azure background. In the second quarter, Moldavia's traditional coat of arms is shown, gules: an aurochs head sable with a mullet of or between its horns, a cinquefoil rose on the dexter and a waning crescent on the sinister, both argent. The third quarter features the traditional coat of arms of the Banat and Oltenia, gules: over waves, a golden bridge with two arched openings, wherefrom comes a golden lion holding a broadsword in its right forepaw. The fourth quarter shows the coat of arms of Transylvania, Maramureș and Crișana: a shield parted by a narrow fesse, gules; in the chief, on azure, there is a black aquila with golden beak coming out of the fesse, accompanied by a golden sun on the dexter and a crescent argent on the sinister ; on the base, on or, there are seven crenellated towers, placed four and three. Also represented are the lands adjacent to the Black Sea, on azure: two dolphins affronts, head down.
