Our another virtual walk will be provided via legends and some histories of Lublin. Probably, many of you have thought what the sign of “a billy goat” in Lublin means. A billy goat can be seen on the lanterns, in the attic on one of the building on the Old Town, in the city centre. We will try to help you to understand the meaning of this animal for people in Lublin.

A billy goat climbing on vines is the coat-of-arms of Lublin. Why is it like that? The story has its beginning in one legend. It says that during the Tatars’ attack on Poland, some group of children living on the territory of the contemporary Lublin ran away. They hid away in a defile. Unfortunately, they ran away in a hurry and didn’t take any food with themselves. Interestingly enough, there was a one goat left in the defile. The goat have fed the children so they have survived.

When the children have grown up, they rebuilt the town and wanted to register the city in the king’s registry of towns. It was extremely crucial to have the legal municipality to get the rights like the other towns . As a result, the representative group came to the king of Poland and asked for the legal municipality. The king have been told about the battles and the children fed by the goat. The king was as amazed as he agreed on Lublin becoming the city with all of the rights. It was decided to have a goat as the coat-of-arms of Lublin. That is why the people of Lublin asked the local artist to paint the goat. However, the painter wasn’t a talented one and instead of drawing a beautiful white goat, he painted a very old, greyish he-goat. Unfortunately, this horrible detail hasn’t been noticed at the proper time but in the way back home. When they came back from the king’s castle they got really upset about the painting. They were afraid that it is a very bad prediction for the future to have such a disgraceful symbol of the city. When they reached home they showed the new coat-of-arms in Lublin. The people burst into laughter. However, they were absolutely blissful that their city achieved the legal municipality.

The picture of a he-goat changed. The first view of a he-goat looked like an old, fat and ugly animal.  Nowadays, the silver billy goat looks majestically with his golden hooves and horns. The grapevines In front of the billy goat mean fertility. The billy-goat stands on his two legs proving his power and strength.

Maybe is it worth looking around the city to see where we can find the sign of Lublin?

The next walk will be continued…