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Last modified: 2016-12-20 by ivan sache
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Flag of Campo de Gibraltar - Image from the Símbolos de Cadíz website, 28 November 2009
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The District (comarca) of Campo de Gibraltar, legally, the Mancomunidad de Municipios (Commonwealth of Municipalities) del Campo de Gibraltar, was established on 1 February 1985 by the municipalities of Algeciras, Los Barrios, Castellar de la Frontera, Jimena de la Frontera, La Línea de la Concepción, San Roque, and Tarifa (that is, the south-easternmost part of the Province of Cádiz).
Ivan Sache, 10 September 2016
The flag (photo, photo, photo) and arms of Campo de Gibraltar were adopted on 19 October 2015 by the Mayors' Assembly.
The symbols were designed by Ángel J. Sáez Rodríguez, Director of the Instituto de Estudios Campogibraltareños (IECG), an autonomous organism established in 1991 by the Mancomunidad. The graphical artwork is credited to Paco Periane, an artist from Algeciras.
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: A panel purple (lower half) and light green (upper half) in total proportions 2:3 (length on width). In the center of the flag, on its two sides, the coat of arms of the district, in width 2/5 of the flag's width.
Coat of arms: In Spanish shape. Argent a three-towered castle gules masoned and port and windows sable a key or in pale tied to the central gate by a chain of the same the ward dexterwise surmounted by an arch of seven six-pointed stars vert the base per fess vert and purpure. A bordure or charged with the motto "PRO GEOGRAPHIA, HISTORIA ET VOLUNTATE CONIVNCTI" ŒUnited by Geography, History and Will]. The shield surmounted by a Spanish Royal crown.
The colours are specified as Pantone PMS 266 (purple) and Pantone PMS 375 (light green). The colours, used in the corporate identity of the Mancomunidad, recall that the district was once a border area:
- purple, for the Castilian banners that marked the border for centuries, for the lions of the standard of Sancho IV, who conquered Tarifa, of Alfonso XI, who hoisted it in Algeciras, and of Infantes Peter and Henry, who fought the Merinid at the Battle of El Salado (1340). Purple is also the colour of the flags hoisted by the militia of the Council of Córdoba and the companies of the Bishop of Jaén, also present, together with those of the Bishop of Córdoba, at the siege of Algeciras. The Councils of Seville, Córdoba and Jaén also fought in this last event under banners of the same colour.
- green, as the traditional representation of the Muslim Spaniards who ruled the area for most of the Middle Ages, in peace or conflict with the aforementioned entities, shaping its history, character and future. It represents the other side of the border, which did not disappear with the seizure of Gibraltar in 1462 but subsisted until the 19th century with Andalusian presence on the two sides of the Straits.
The coat of arms is modelled on the arms granted on 10 July 1502 by Queen Isabel I of Castile to the Town and Kingdom of Gibraltar, which encompassed four of the six municipalities forming the district (Algeciras, La Línea de la Concepción, Los Barrios, and San Roque). The castle also appears on the arms of the three other municipalities (Castellar de la Frontera, Jimena de la Frontera, and Tarifa), reflecting their strategic significance on the border with the Nasrid kingdom.
The key was described on Henry IV (1462 and 1470) and Isabel the Catholic's (1502) grants of arm as "the guard of the strait" and "the key between our kingdoms and the eastern and western seas and the guard and defence of the strait of these seas". The key is featured on the arms of Los Barrios, San Roque, and Tarifa.
The field argent was kept from the original arms, charged with the seven stars - also represented on the logo of the IECG - , as the symbol of the seven municipalities forming the district.
The base, gules in the original arms, was changed to the colours of the Mancomunidad.
The Spanish shape of the shield and the Royal crown recall that the district is part of the Spanish municipal administration.
[Ángel J. Sáez Rodríguez. Escudo de Armas y Bandera para el Campo de Gibraltar, 19 October 2015]
Ivan Sache, 10 September 2016
