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Gorafe (Municipality, Andalusia, Spain)

Flag of Gorafe - Image from the Símbolos de Granada website, 26 September 2015

Presentation of Gorafe
Symbols of Gorafe

See also:

Presentation of Gorafe

The municipality of Gorafe (501 inhabitants in 2008; 7,714 ha; municipal website) is located 90 km north-east of Granada.

Gorafe is famous for the 198 dolmens grouped in 10 necropolis located in the valley of Gor, forming the biggest concentration of dolmens in Europe; the monuments are collective tombs characteristic of the megalithic culture of the Middle Neolithic (6000 BC).
After having conquered the region in 711, the Moors built cave dwellings, for instance the Almohad settlement of Los Algarves (12th century). The name of the village indeed comes from Arabic gaurab, "a high dwelling". A part of the population of the village still lives in such cave dwellings. In 1451, the Catholic Monarchs appointed the first lord of Gorafe, Álvaro de Bazán y Quiñones. After 1600, the increase in cultivated areas boosted the development of the village. Today, Gorafe is a small village living from agriculture, tourism and esparto handcraft.

Ivan Sache, 4 July 2009

Symbols of Gorafe

The flag and arms of Gorafe, adopted on 18 September 2007 by the Municipal Council and submitted on 28 September 2007 to the Directorate General of the Local Administration, are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 11 October 2007 by the Directorate General of the Local Administration and published on 24 October 2007 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 210, pp. 31-32 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular panel, in proportions 2:3, made of two equal vertical stripes, green at hoist and yellow at fly. In the center a white shield with a red dolmen and a red border.
Coat of arms: Per fess, 1.Vert a sun radiant or, 2. Or three caves sable. Overall an escutcheon argent a dolmen gules a bordure of the same. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.

The coat of arms shows a sun to symbolize the local weather, a dolmen representing the megaliths found on the municipal territory, and cave dwellings characteristic of the area.
[Símbolos de las Entidades Locales de Andalucía. Granada (PDF file)]

Ivan Sache, 4 July 2009