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Last modified: 2022-09-09 by ivan sache
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Flag of Castilla-La Mancha , three versions - Images from the SEV website, 2 May 2019
See also:
The Community of Castilla-La Mancha (2,078,611 inhabitants in
2014; 79,643 km2, therefore the 3rd biggest autonomous community by
its area) is located in the center of Spain.
The Autonomy Status of Castilla-La-Mancha is prescribed by
Constitutional Law No. 9, adopted on 10 August 1982 and last amended on
22 May 2014 (consolidated text). The capital of Castilla-La Mancha is Toledo (83,459 inh.), once the seat of the Court of Castile. Toledo, however, is only the 4th most populated municipality in the community, after Albacete (172,426 inh.), Talavera de la Reina (84,119 inh.), and Guadalajara (83,633 inh.).
Ivan Sache, 2 May 2019
The flag of Castilla-La Mancha is prescribed by a Decree issued on 11
January 1980 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha, signed on 25
January 1980 by the President of the Government, and published on 20
October 1980 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 1, p.
28 (text).
The flag is described as follows:
Article 1. The flag of Castilla-La Mancha shall be adopted with the following description:
Divided from top to bottom into two equal squares; at hoist, on a crimson field, a castle or with three towers masoned in black and with the stones outlined and the ports and windows azure; the second part, plain white.
Article 2. Every Provincial Council and every Municipality in the region shall be offered a regional flag manufactured with adequate material, for joint use with the flag of Spain in public buildings and official ceremonies.
The text was "transferred" to Article 5 of the Autonomy Statutes, as follows:
1. The flag of the Region shall be made of a rectangle vertically divided into two equal squares; the first, at hoist, crimson red, with a castle or masoned sable and port and windows azure, and the second, white.
2. The flag of the Region shall be hoisted on the public buildings of regional, provincial, or municipal rank, and shall be placed beside the flag of Spain, which shall be hoisted at the prominent place; the flag representative of the historical territories can be used, too.
3. The Region of Castilla-La Mancha shall have a proper coat of arms and a proper anthem, to be prescribed by a Law adopted by the Parliament of Castilla-La Mancha.
4. The provinces, districts, and municipalities of the Region shall keep their traditional flags, coats of arms and emblems.
The flag was adopted during the pre-autonomy regime. Different proposals
were discussed during a session of the Government held on 11 January
1980 in Albacete; the Government adopted the design originally submitted
on 15 December 1977 by Ramón José Maldonado y Cocat (1916-1990; official
Chronicler of the town of Almagro and corresponding member of the Royal
Academy of History), who also designed most of the municipal coats of
arms adopted in the Province of Ciudad Real during the second half of
the 20th century.
The description of the flag contributed by its designer is the following:
The flag divided (from top to bottom) into two equal parts. In the part located close to the hoist, the shield or banner [pendón] of Castile, the old kingdom to which all this region belonged, which is: on a field crimson red a castle or with three towers masoned in black (the stones outlined) and port and windows azure. The second part, white, recalling the military orders of Calatrava, Saint James, and Saint John, whose glorious militia conquered, organized and managed La Mancha, and whose banners always were white or red charged with a white St. John's Cross; the towns and places that belonged to the Royal domain are represented in the first quarter of the flag.
[Ramón José Maldonado y Cocat. 1984. La bandera regional y nuevas armas municipales de la provincia de Ciudad Real. Cuadernos de estudios manchegos 15, 303-337]
Accordingly, the prescribed proportions of the flag are 1:2, in
contradiction with the general norms followed in Spain and in most of
the European countries, which are 2:3. This oddity was corrected de
facto, the flags in actual use having the usual proportions (2:3).
[Official website]
There is significant variation in the shade of the flags in official use, from dark pink (photo, photo, photo, photo, video (tribute to the flag's designer in Almagro)) to dark red (photo, photo, photo, photo), through bright red (as for the national flag; photo, photo).
Ivan Sache, 2 May 2019
The coat of arms of Castilla-La Mancha is prescribed by Law No. 1,
adopted on 30 June 1983 by the Parliament of Castilla-La Mancha, signed
on 5 July by the President of the Government of Castilla-La Mancha, and
published on 12 July 1983 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha,
No. 15, p. 311 (text.
The coat of arms is described as follows:
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Gules a castle or port and windows azure masoned sable, 2. Argent. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed [description skipped].
As stated in the aforementioned Law, the official model of the coat of
arms is prescribed by Decree No. 132, adopted on 5 July 1983 by the
Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published 12 July 1983 in the
official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 15, pp. 311-313 (text).
Article 1 provides a black and white drawing of the coat of arms.
Articles 2 and 3 detail the rules of use and implementation of the new
coat of arms, respectively.
The flag is, heraldically speaking, a banner of arms; however, the arms were derived from the flag, which is quite unusual.
Ivan Sache, 2 May 2019
![[Flag]](../images/e/es_uclm.gif)
Flag of UCLM - Image after "Asqueladd", Wikimedia Commons, 14 March 2020
The University of Castilla-La Mancha (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha - UCLM; website) was established by Law No. 27, promulgated on 30 June 1982 by King Juan Carlos and published on 10 July 1982 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 164, p. 18,823 (text). Its original name was Universidad Castellano-Manchega.
Inaugurated in 1985, the UCLM operates campuses in all the provincial capitals but Guadalajara:
- Albacete: Faculties of Pharmacy, Medicine, Economics for Business, Law, Humanities (7,000 students);
- Ciudad Real: Faculties of Medicine, Chemical Sciences and Technologies, Law and Social Sciences, Letters (8,000 students, the secondary seat in Almadén included);
- Cuenca: Faculties of Social Sciences, Arts, Sciences of Education and Humanities, Communication, Nursing, Education, Social Work (3,600 students);
- Toledo: Faculties of Architecture, Law and Social Sciences, Environmental Sciences and Biochemistry, Sports Sciences, Humanities, Physiotherapy and Nursing, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering, Education, Health Sciences, Social Sciences (7,100 students, the secondary seat in Talavera de la Reina included).
The symbols (seal, flag (photo, photo, photo) and medal) of the UCLM were approved on 24 May 1989 by the university's Governing Board, as published on 4 July 1989 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 29, pp. 1,926-1,930 (text).
Paragraph I.
Coat of arms. Quarterly, 1. Per fess, a. Gules a castle or masoned sable port and windows azure, b. Argent, 2. Quarterly, a. and d. Argent, b. and c. Vert an eight-pointed star argent, all over a bend gules, 3. Gyronny argent and sable a cross flory counter-colored, 4. Gules a spiked breaking wheel or. The shield surmounted by a modern Spanish Royal crown. Paragraph III.
The flag of the UCLM is composed of two vertical stripes of equal length, red at hoist and white at fly. In the center is placed the coat of arms of the university in full colors, the metals being substituted by their equivalent tinctures: or for yellow and argent for white. The width of the shield is the half of the flag's hoist and the flag's proportions shall be those of the Spanish flag (2:3).
The shade of the red stripe of the flag [...] shall be that of the flag of the Autonomous Community of Castilla-La Mancha.
Appendix I shows two versions (A and B) of the coat of arms, differing by the shape of the shield and minor design details, without further explanation.
The symbols are explained in the Preamble as follows:
The flag of the UCLM uses the colors of the flag of Castilla-La Mancha: red and white, arranged in vertical stripes, superimposed with the coat of arms of the university.
The first quarter of the coat of arms features the arms of Castilla-La Mancha.
The second quarter features the arms, of "immemorial use", of the University of Sigüenza, that is, the family arms of its founder, Juan López de Medina.
The third quarter features the arms of the Dominican Order, identified with the Pontifical and Royal Convent-University of Almagro dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary.
The fourth quarter, "Gules a spike breaking wheel or", recalls the martyrdom of St. Catherine of Alexandria ordered by Emperor Maxentius. The saint is the namesake of the St. Catherine Pontifical and Royal University in Toledo.
The coat of arms is surmounted by a Spanish Royal crown as on the arms of Spain and also on the arms of Castilla-La Mancha.
The symbols were designed under the aegis of Feliciano Barrios Pintado (b. 1954), appointed Professor of History of Law and Institutions at UCLM in 1986, full member the Royal Academy of History since 2007.
The second, third and fourth quarters recall old universities the UCLM claims to have succeeded, the University of Sigüenza, the University of Almagro, and the University of Toledo.
The University of Sigüenza was established in 1476, as Colegio Grande de San Antonio de Portaceli, by Juan López de Medina, Archdeacon of Almazán. Built out of the town, the college had its original constitutions approved in 1483 by Pope Sixtus IV (papacy, 1471-1484) and promulgated on 7 July 1484. They were subsequently reformed by the founder a few years later, in 1489 by Cardinal Pedro González de Mendoza (1428-1495; created cardinal in 1473), and in 1505 by Cardinal Bernardino López de Carvajal (1456-1523; created cardinal in 1493). The founder hired Hieronymite friar as "lecturers" in Theology, Canon, and Philosophy. The 13 lecturers, the rector included, recalled Jesus and the 12 Apostles. Following the medieval tradition, the founder established together with the college (for education) a monastery (for religion), and an hospice (for charity).
The college was granted the status of university by a Bull issued in April 1489 by Innocent VIII (1432-1492; papacy, 1484-1492), upon request by Cardinal Mendoza. From the early beginning, teaching relied on a single source book, St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica.
The university experienced its Gilded Age in the 16th century, hiring famous professors such as Pedro Ciruelo (Philosophy), Fernando de Vellosillo and Pedro Guerrero (Theology), and Juan López de Vidania (Medicine). It became popular in Castile due to its low-cost examinations.
The university declined in the 17th century, in spite of having been transferred downtown in 1651 by Bishop Bartolomé Santos de Risoba (1582-1657, bishop from 1649 to 1657), and was eventually closed in 1837.
[Los Escritos de Herrera Casado, 16 August 1985]
The Monastery-University of Almagro was established in 1574 by the humanist Friar Fernando Fernández de Córdova y Mendoza (d. 1550), Warden of the Order of Calatrava, and eventually closed in 1835. The monastery was then used as an olive oil mill and all its goods were sold. Damaged by several blazes, the mill was converted into a furniture workshop.
The only remains from the Renaissance jewel the monastery was are its church and a few classrooms. The Morisco and Gothic nave of the former church was transformed into the AUREA (Antigua Universidad Renacentista - Old Renaissance University - also reading "Golden" in Latin, referring to the Spanish Golden Age), a modern theater housing more than 500 spectators and one of the more than 20 scenes of the International Festival of Classical Theater (website), which has been organized every year in Almagro since 1978 (originally as the Days of Spanish Classical Theater, transformed to a complete festival in 1982).
The old University of Toledo used a seal featuring a shield in Swiss style, quartered per saltire and featuring the arms of the Álvarez Zapata and St. Catherine's wheel, as follows:
"Quarterly per saltire, 1. Per fess, a cross in the upper part, 2. and 3. A cross flory (of the type of the Cross of Calatrava), 4. St. Catherine's martyrdom wheel with 13 spikes, 7 rays and a handle".
The seal's border is inscribed "Sigillym Collegii Sancte Catherine Civitatis Toletane".
The modern shield of the university, as seen embroidered on the four corners of the color of the University Battalion of the Toledo Volunteers, formed in 1808 by professors and alumni to resist the Napoleonic invasion and the foreshadowing of the General Military Academy, is composed of a Spanish shield, quartered per saltire and featuring the same charges as the old seal. The representation of the wheel, its number of rays and spikes varied with time.
The Álvarez de Toledo-Zapata family founded in 1485 the St. Catherine College-University and in 1581 the St. Bernardino College affiliated to the university. This family from Toledo, of Jewish origin, yielded noted lawyers, scholars and churchmen, and is the root of the Counts of Cedillo. Their arms are per pale or quartered per saltire. The first and fourth quarters are per fess, the upper part argent with a cross gules and the lower part plain gules, while the second and third quarters are azure a cross flory argent.
Accordingly, the coat of arms of the old University of Toledo was:Ivan Sache, 14 March 2020
