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Last modified: 2016-12-20 by ivan sache
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Flag of Lucena del Puerto - Image from the Símbolos de Huelva website, 1 September 2016
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The municipality of Lucena del Puerto (3,046 inhabitants in 2015; 6,900 ha) is located 25 km north-east of Huelva and 15 km of Moguer.
Ivan Sache, 1 September 2016
The flag of Lucena del Puerto, adopted on 25 August 1994 by the Municipal Council, is prescribed by Decree No. 252, adopted on 10 October 1995 by the Government of Andalusia and published on 15 December 1995 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 159, pp. 11,717-11,718 (text). This was confirmed by a Resolution adopted on 30 November 2004 by the Government of Andalusia and published on 20 December 2004 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 246, pp. 28,986-29,002 (text).
The flag is described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 2 x 3, made of five horizontal stripes, red, green, white, green and red; the central of 1/3 and the other of 1/6 of the panel's width.
The flag in actual use (photo) is charged with the (not registered yet) municipal coat of arms.
The flag was first approved on 29 April 1993 by the Municipal Council, as "Rectangular, made of five horizontal stripes; the first and the fifth, in proportions 1/6, red; the second and the fourth, in the same proportions, green; and the third, in proportions 2/6, white". The Municipal Council adopted on 25 August 1994 a rephrazing of the description of the flag, as proposed by the designer, Domingo Muñoz Bort, in the supporting memoir, "Rectangular, in proportions 2:3, made of five horizontal stripes, red, green, white, and green, the central of 1/3 and the other of 1/6 of the panel's width", rejecting the slightly different wording proposed on 22 August 1994 by Juan José Antequera, "Rectangular, in proportions 2:3, made of five horizontal stripes, red, green, white, and green, the central of 1/3 and the remaining ones of 16 of the width".
The Royal Academy of Córdoba validated the proposed flag on 8 June 1995 "without any objection".
Domingo Muñoz Bort's first proposal, submitted in 1990, was horizontally divided red-white-green, the central stripe slightly wider and charged with the municipal coat of arms, was also rejected by the Academy as similar to the flag of a foreign nation, here the well-known flag of an European country, Hungary.
The designer explained with a lot of detail that green and white recalls the flag of Andalusia and that red is taken from the flag of Spain.
The coat of arms of Lucena del Puerto is "Per pale, 1. Azure two caldrons checkered or and gules handled vert in pale a bordure compony of Castile and León, 2. Or a crow sable holding a palm vert in the beak. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed."
Lucena del Puerto used in 1846 an ink seal featuring a crow standing on a rock or a tree trunk and holding a palm in the beak. The same seal was widely used between 1880 and 1904, as can be seen in the Provincial and Municipal Archives of Huelva. The municipality used arms made of a French shield charged with a crow holding a palm in the beak.
The "rehabilitated" arms proposed by Domingo Muñoz Bort in 1990 were rejected on 3 February 1992 by the Royal Academy of History. The shield featured the crow holding the palm and was surrounded by a bordure compony representing the Dukes of Medina Sidonia. The bordure recalled that Lucena was incorporated to the County of Niebla in the 14th century. The Academy rejected the crow and palm as "the most abundant elements in the municipality", as claimed in the supporting memoir; they recall indeed the martyr of St. Vincent, the town's patron saint, as explained by the Municipality in the 19th century when forwarding the arms to the National Historical Archives. While the charges are, logically, represented proper, the field azure is inappropriate, lacking chromatic contrast with the charges. The bordure inappropriately features the arms of Portugal, taken from a secondary partition of the arms of Pacheco-Acuña, the lineage of the wife of a Duke form the 18th century. The arms of Guzmán, Castile and León should be shown with their genuine tinctures instead of those arbitrarily assigned here. The Academy stated that the design could be easily corrected, and the blazon as well, dropping the inappropriate words and the imaginary symbolic.
The municipality accepted on 21 February 1992 proposals corrected by Muñoz Bort. The Municipal Council adopted on 29 April 1993 "Argent a crow holding a palm in the beak a bordure compony of eight pieces argent charged 1, 2, 5, and 6 with a caldron checky or and gules handled by seven snake's heads vert in pale 3 and 7 with a castle or 4 and 8 with a lion purpure. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed."
The proposals, sent on 21 June 1993 to the Directorate General of the Local Administration, were withdrawn upon request of Juan José Antequera, who pointed out that the design still perpetuated mistakes, both in the design and the blazon. The Royal Academy of History recognized on 24 June 1994 the suppression of the arms of Portugal but pointed out the still erroneous tinctures for Castile and León; moreover, the arms of Guzm‡n, Castile and León had to be represented in turn in the bordure. The Academy eventually proposed "Argent a crow sable holding a palm vert in the beak standing on a base of the same a bordure compony of nine pieces in turn azure a caldron checkered or and gules, gules a castle or, and argent a lion purpure. The shield surmounted by a Royal Spanish crown."
Antequera proposed on 13 August 1994 a simpler design, "Per pale, 1. Guzm‡n [the two caldrons], 2. Or a crow sable holding a palm vert in the beak". The castles and the lions were suppressed to give more prominence to the caldrons. The design was rejected by the Royal Academy of Córdoba on 8 June 1995, which initiated a long, bitter quarrel between the designer and the Academy. The municipality appears to use a counter-proposal made by the Academy, which was never officially registered.
The registration process was declared null and void by a Resolution adopted on 24 October 1997 by the Directorate General of the Local Administration and published on 15 November 1997 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 133, p. 13,566 (text).
[Juan José Antequera. Principios de transmisibilidad en las heráldicas officiales de Sevilla, Córdoba y Huelva]
Ivan Sache, 1 September 2016
