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Last modified: 2015-11-18 by ivan sache
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Flag of El Coronil - Image from the Símbolos de Sevilla website, 4 June 2014
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The municipality of El Coronil (4,996 inhabitants in 2014; 9,164 ha; unofficial website), is located 50 km south-east of Seville.
El Coronil has been identified with the Roman town of Callet, which minted its own coins and flourished at the same time as Salpensa, which was located 7 km north-east of El Coronil. There is little evidence backing up this identification; some say that El Coronil originates in an Iberian watch tower erected at mid distance of Callet and Salpensa.
El Coronil was established by a noble form Seville, Ruy Pérez Esquivel, who was granted on 25 April 1381 by King John I a charter allowing the settlement of 15 households, free of tax but commissioned to watch the border with the Kingdom of Granada. Diego Gómez de Ribera acquired El Coronil on 29 January 1419; in 1425, King John II allowed the organization of two one-month fairs each year. In the 17th century, El Coronil was relatively little hit by the epidemics that scoured the south of Spain, first because of the prevention and control measures implemented by the municipality, and, second, thanks to the intercession of St. Rocco, who was eventually proclaimed the patron saint of the town.
Ivan Sache, 4 June 2014
The flag (photo, photo) and arms of El Coronil, in use since 2000 but not officially registered. are described as follows:
Flag: Divided into nine horizontal stripes, five white and four green, with a white rectangle placed in the upper left corner and charged with the municipal coat of arms.
Coat of arms: Quarterly, 1. Azure a castle or masoned sable port and windows gules, 2. Azure a dove argent holding in the beak a branch of laurel, 3. Azure two wheat spikes or in pale, 4. Azure an olive tree proper on a base or. A bordure per pale vert and argent inscribed with "callet - villa de el coronil" in letters sable. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.
White is a symbol of purity and liberty, and, also, the colour of the houses of the town. Green is a symbol of agriculture, representing the fields.
The first quarter of the shield is made of the old arms of the town, used for more than 100 years. The second quarter recalls the long struggle of the town for peace and liberty. The third quarter is a symbol of agriculture; a wheat spike is represented on the only Roman coin ever found in El Coronil, dated 50 BC. The fourth quarter features an olive tree, a typical Andalusian tree, to recall that El Coronil is an Andalusian town.
El Coronil previously used, in a "more or less official manner", a coat of arms described as "Azure (blue) a castle or on a base vert (standing on a green ground); the shield surrounded by an artistic bordure with ceramic-like elements and placed on a cartouche with volutes and other adornments." The shape of the shield is oval. The castle evokes the castle of El Coronil, built in the 14th century and significantly revamped and increased in the next two centuries. Its partial destruction in the early 19th century caused the erroneous interpretation of the castle on the arms as the neighbouring castle of Las Aguzaderas, erected in the 15th century.
The coat of arms appears to be derived from the arms of Tarifa, since the two towns belonged to the Adelantados of Andalusia, represented by the Enríquez de Ribera lineage. The emblem was granted in the late 16th century by Ana Girón, the wife of Fernando Enríquez de Ribera, 4th Marquis of Tarifa, to the judges of El Coronil, to be used in all official instances and as the representation of the town.
[Unofficial website]
Experts in heraldry pointed out that the old arms could not be used by a modern municipality. The oval-shaped shield represents an ecclesiastic domain, while a Spanish-shaped shield should be used for a municipality. The castle, lacking windows, is not depicted in an heraldic manner. The unnecessary bordure and cartouche should be dropped. The shield should be surmounted by a Royal crown closed.
Juan José Antequera Luengo proposed on 27 May 1994 a coat of arms described as "Per pale, 1. Azure a castle or masoned sable port and windows gules, 2. Or three fesses vert (Ribera). The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed." As requested by the municipality, he proposed another design on 5 April 1998, "Azure semé of ducal coronets or surmounted by a castle or port and windows gules". The proposals were not validated and a public contest was organized instead.
A first contest, held on 27 September 1998, was declared non conclusive since none of the 27 proposals got 40% of the 556 votes. The two proposals that had received the most votes were submitted to a second contest, organized of 22 November 1998. The selected flag and coat of arms received 263 and 264 votes, respectively, out of 491. The first contest included a question regarding the use of the Royal crown of the arms: 427 approved it, 59 rejected it and 69 abstained from voting.
The winning proposal for the coat of arms was designed by Rogelio Marín Mondaza. The second, rejected proposal, is quite similar to Antequera's first proposal, "Per pale, 1. Or three fesses vert, 2. Azure a castle or masoned sable port and windows gules on a base vert. Grafted in base, argent an olive tree proper issuant from the base." None of the two proposals is compliant with the heraldic and legal prescriptions.
The winning proposal for the banner was designed by Juan Manual Galbano Galbarro. It shows an irrelevant similarity with the flag used by a local football team [Real Betis] with green and white stripes displayed vertically. The rejected proposal is horizontally divided celestial blue-white-green, a design officially registered by another Andalusian municipality.
[Juan José Antequera Luengo. Heráldica oficial de la provincia de Sevilla]
Ivan Sache & Klaus-Michael Schneider, 4 June 2014
