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Huerta de Arriba (Municipality, Castilla y León, Spain)

Flag of Huerta de Arriba, two versions - Images by Ivan Sache, 3 February 2014

Presentation of Huerta de Arriba
Symbols of Huerta de Arriba

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Presentation of Huerta de Arriba

The municipality of Huerta de Arriba (135 inhabitants in 2012; 3,318 ha; municipal website) is located in the east of the Province of Burgos, on the border with La Rioja, 90 km from Burgos.

Huerta de Arriba was mentioned for the first time in 1045, as Orta Superiora. A document from the 13th century claims that village was originally named Vertor de Suso, then Huerta de Suso, a name changed in the middle of the 18th century to Vulgar Arriba. In the 10th century, the village belonged to the alfoz (group of villages) of Barbadillo del Pez, owned by the Dukes of Lara.
The treasure of Huerta de Arriba, found in 1927 and kept in the Xarxa Museum of Valencia, is made of three axes, a spearhead, three small swords, eight armbands and four knives dated from the Age of Bronze (1000-900 BC).

Ivan Sache, 3 February 2014

Symbols of Huerta de Arriba

The flag and arms of Huerta de Arriba are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 14 May 1998 by the Provincial Government of Burgos, signed on 1 June 1998 by the President of the Government, and published on 10 June 1998 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 108 (text).
The symbols, which were validated by the Chronicler of Arms of Castilla y León, are described as follows:

Flag: In proportions 1:1. 1. Vertical, or, 2/10. 2. Horizontal, vert, 8/10 x 5/10, and 3. Horizontal, gules, 8/10 x 5/10.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Argent an oak vert eradicated a boar sable, 2. Gules two cauldrons checky or and sable with snake's heads vert per pale. Grafted in base, vert a bull or issuanf from dexter and a sheep of the same issuant from sinister. The shield surmounted with a Royal Spanish crown.

The legal description of the flag does not mention the coat of arms, which is actually represented on drawings of the flag (unofficial website, Escudos y Banderas de la Provincia de Burgos website).

The Royal Academy of History found several flaws to the proposed coat of arms. The use of a tree crossed by a boar, of English origin and transferred via Aquitaine to family arms in Guipúzcoa and northern Navarre, is not supported by any reason, which represents an historical falsification. The checky cauldrons on a field gules used to represent the "belonging" of Huerta de Arriba to the County of Lara in the 10th century are a mere anachronism; moreover, these arms belonged to the Manrique, Counts of Lara, who did not have the least relation with Huerta de Arriba. Finally, the design of the animals issuant from the edges of the shield does not comply with good style in heraldry and is totally awkward in Spanish heraldry.
The Academy did not care commenting the proposed flag (Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 197, 2: 352, 2000).

Ivan Sache, 3 February 2014