For decades, the soldier and heraldist Jiří Louda has been an important personality in Olomouc. He is a representative of the foreign resistance on the Western Front, the conceptual creator of the Czech state emblem and municipal emblems throughout the Czech Republic. The new adaptation of the Olomouc coat of arms with the letters SPQO and the coat of arms of the Olomouc Region also come from Jiří Louda’s heraldic studio.
He was born in 1920 in Kutná Hora and has lived in Olomouc since 1945. Jiří Louda is the author of the Czech state emblem and the presidential standard, the author of the emblem of the Olomouc Archdiocese and 150 emblems of towns and municipalities. He is also considered an important heraldist on a global scale, thanks to his book on European ruling dynasties, entitled Lines from Succesion.
He was rehabilitated in 1991.
The heraldist Jiří Louda received many orders and honours, including the Czechoslovak War Cross and the Medal of Merit, which he received from President Václav Havel for services to the Czech Republic.
