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Last modified: 2016-06-09 by ivan sache
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Flag of Torredelcampo - Image from the Símbolos de Jaén website, 6 December 2015
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The municipality of Torredelcampo (14,729 inhabitants in 2013; 18,208 ha; municipal website) is located 10 km north-west of Jaén.
Torredelcampo was settled by the Iberians, who established a fortified camp on the Cerro Miguelico hill. The settlement was maintained by the Romans, the Visigoths and the Muslims, forming an alquería located on the northern slope of the hill, fortified at the top. The Berruecos castle was erected on the Cerro San Antón, a rock watching the strategic junction of the Jaén-Arjona and Iliturgi-Martos roads.
Torredelcampo was part of the defensive buffer zone established by Aljhamar around Jaén and Arjona after the conquest of Martos and Andújar by King Ferdinand III the Saint in 1225; the area resisted the Christian assaults until the fall of Jaén in 1246. Torredelcampo was then incorporated to the Royal domain and placed under the rule of the Council of Jaén. Aspiration to separation from Jaén was fulfilled only on 10 June 1804, when Charles IV eventually granted the status of villa to Torredelcampo.
Ivan Sache, 6 December 2015
The flag and arms of Torredelcampo, adopted on 31 March 2011 by the Municipal Council and submitted on 6 April 2011 to the Directorate General of the Local Administration, are prescribed by a Resolution adopted on 20 April 2011 by the Directorate General of the Local Administration and published on 18 May 2011 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 96, p. 23-24 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular, with proportions three units in length on two units in width (2/3), that is, one and a half longer than wide, horizontally divided into three stripes, the upper third, red, the middle third, olive green, and the lower third, purple. Charged with the crowned coat of arms of Torredelcampo, whose geometrical axis shall fit the center of the flag, in height 2/3 of the flag's hoist.
Coat of arms: Gules a castle or masoned sable port and windows purpure on a base vert. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.
The memoir supporting the proposed symbols was redacted by Andrés Nicás Moreno (El escudo, bandera e himno de Torredelcampo (Jaén). Boletín Instituto de Estudios Giennenses, 2012, 206, 153-157). The graphical design of the symbols is credited to Juan Millán Bruno.
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Flag of Torredelcampo, as originally adopted - Image by Ivan Sache, 6 December 2015
The flag, designed from scratch, was originally adopted on 30 June 1982 by the Municipal Council. The design that was eventually registered is similar, with the addition of the coat of arms in the center. Mayor Blas Sabalate Ruiz described the meaning of the colours, in 1982, as follows:
Red is the colour of valour and courage, of energy, struggle, passion and force, which are characteristic of the citizens of Torredelcampo. Red also appears on the national flag.
Green is the color of hope, of the wide orchards planted with olive trees, the main source of income for the municipality. Green also appears on the flag of Andalusia.
Purple is the colour of creativity, independence and dignity, of the change and of great ideals. Purple is the colour of the flag raised, in the name of freedom and until the scaffold, by the heroin Mariana Pineda. Purple is also the colour of the banner of Jaén.
The colour specifications (Pantone scale) are given as:
Red R- 192 C Olive green V- 3415 U Purple P+ 2627 U
The oldest known arms of Torredelcampo are shown on a seal dated 3 July 1649, kept in the Municipal Archives of Úbeda. The seal is ellipsoidal, featuring a castle standing on a base. The field is orled by a simple border and placed on a parchment-like cartouche. Olivares Barragán believes that the seal "of this place" refers indeed to the Muslim Mary Turrus, the Tower's Field; accordingly, the seal must represent the canting arms of the place, as the Tower on the Field (torre del campo). This tower must be the Floresta castle, documented on the seal dated 1876 kept in the National Historical Archives, already ruined at the time. The tower obviously also represents the fortified border area, as it is the case on the arms of other municipalities in the region, which was bristled with castles, fortresses and towers. The old seal, however, can hardly be considered as the genuine arms of Torredelcampo, which belonged at the time to the Council of Jaén, and, therefore, could not use a proper seal.
On 9 October 1876, the Mayor of Torredelcampo wrote that the old seal of the town is circular, showing a castle on a base. The Mayor added that nothing is known on the origin of the seal, which presumably represent the ruined castle of Floresta, originally erected by the Arabs. Since when the seal had been in used was not known either; at least, it had been used until December 1873. Following the proclamation of the Republic, the seal was changed to an equilateral triangle charged with a quartered shield, surmounted by a liberty cap. This revolutionary design was substituted in March 1875, a few months after the coup of General Martínez Campos that would lead to the restoration of the monarchy, by an oval seal showing the simplified arms of Spain and surmounted by a Royal crown closed. The document granting the status of villa to the town does not show the municipal arms.
There is no reference to the arms of Torredelcampo either by Madoz (1845-1850) or Piferrer (1857-1860). The painting designed in 1941 by Juan de Díos López Jiménez for the Provincial Council of Jaén shows the arms of Torredelcampo as a Spanish-French shield, "Gules a castle or masoned and port and windows sable on a base proper". The subsequent representations of the arms often include an irrelevant Infante's coronet and outer ornaments not suitable in municipal heraldry.
Therefore, the proposed arms are a "rehabilitation" of the historical coat of arms of the town. The main changes are the use of a Spanish-shaped shield and of a Royal crown closed. Gules and or are used on the arms of both the town of Jaén and Castile, to which the town once belonged.
The colour specifications (Pantone scale) are given as:
Or 117 C Gules 192 C Sable Black Vert 339 U Purpure 2627 U
On the flag in actual use (photo, photo), the coat of arms is surmounted by the "irrelevant Infante's coronet" instead of the Royal crown closed.
Ivan Sache, 6 December 2015
Mariana Pineda (1804-1831; portrait), at a very young age, married Manuel Peralta Valte, a liberal army officer, but was widowed in 1822 with two children. She became very involved in liberal causes. In 1828 she assisted the escape from
prison of her cousin, Captain Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor, a noted
liberal who had been condemned to death for taking part in General
Rafael Riego's insurrection.
In a search of her house in 1831, a flag (photo) was discovered with the embroidered slogan "Libertad, Igualdad, Ley" (Freedom, Equality, Law) and she was arrested and accused of conspiracy. After a failed escape attempt she was detained in the Santa María Egipciaca convent in Granada. During the trial, the judge tried to convince her to betray her accomplices in exchange for leniency, but she refused and was publicly executed by the garrote on 26 May.
[Wikipedia]
José María Lama (blog) claims that this flag is rather one of several Liberty flags and also that this was a Masonic-inspired flag rather than a tricolor patriotic flag. The author also claims that she did not make that flag as legend states, which was further spread with the theatrical play Mariana Pineda by Federico García Lorca that atributes Mariana as being the one who sewed the flag, when in reality that was not the case.
Esteban Rivera, 15 April 2012
