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Carrión de los Céspedes (Municipality, Andalusia, Spain)

Flag of Carrión de los Céspedes - Image from the Símbolos de Sevilla website, 27 May 2014

Presentation of Carrión de los Céspedes
Symbols of Carrión de los Céspedes

See also:

Presentation of Carrión de los Céspedes

The municipality of Carrión de los Céspedes (643 inhabitants in 2014; 600 ha; municipal website), is located 20 km north of Seville.

Carrión de los Céspedes is named for river Alcarayón. Carrión was granted in 1253 to the Order of Calatrava by King Alfonso X the Wise, the son of Ferdinand III the Saint, who had reconquerred Seville from the Moors, and named Carrión de Calatrava. A century later, the town, renamed Carrión de los Ajos (of Garlic) was resettled by farmers from Utrera, Castilleja del Campo and Huévar. In 1501, the Catholic Monarchs incorporated the domains of the military orders to the crown, including Carrión de los Ajos. The town was sold in 1576 by Philip II to Gonzalo de Céspedes, a knight member of the Council of Seville. His descendant Juan Antonio de Céspedes y Lasso de la Vega was made Marquis on 1679 by Charles II. The Céspedes ruled the town until 1874, long after the suppression of the feudal system, the last lord being Carlota Manuel de Céspedes.

Ivan Sache, 27 May 2014

Symbols of Carrión de los Céspedes

The flag and arms of Carrión de los Céspedes, submitted on 24 October 2014 by the Municipal Council to the Directorate General of the Local Administration, are prescribed by a Resolution adopted on 31 October 2014 by the Directorate General of the Local Administration and published on 7 November 2014 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 218, p. 22 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular, the horizontal dimension twice the vertical. All vert (green) olive. A white pile, or point reversed, and on its right horizontal base the Cross of Calatrava gules (red).
Coat of arms: Shield of rectangular structure divided into two vertical halfs. The left part, or canton, horizontally divided into two parts. The upper quarter represents a lion rampant gules (red) on a white background. The lower quarter represents a tower or on a background gules. The right part shows six hexagonal grass tufts vert (green) on a background or, surrounded by eight saltires also or on a background gules. The shield is placed over a Cross of Calatrava gules. The shield surmounted by a Marquis' coronet.

Very similar arms appear to have been used long before the official approval of their non-heraldic description, being reported - and criticized - by Juan José Antequera Luengo as "Per pale, 1a. Or a lion rampant gules, 1b. Gules a castle or masoned and port and windows sable, 2. Or six grass tufts vert in two pallets a bordure gules charged with eight St. Andrew's saltires or. The shield placed over a Cross of Calatrava, surmounted by a Marquis' coronet and surrounded by lambrequins or and vert."
The grass tufts [céspedes] from the canting arms of the Céspedes lineage, Marquis of Carrión, should be charged with flowers argent. The Cross of Calatrava should be placed in the shield. The outer ornaments are not appropriate for such a coat of arms; the Marquis' coronet is proper of the domain and not to the municipality. The castle and lion, as well as the saltires, are borrowed from the arms of some descendants of the first lord of Carrión, who do not represent the whole lineage. Moreover, the shield is of French shape, the lion (representing León) should be purpure on argent, armed and langued gules, and the castle (representing Castile) should be port and windows azure. The bordure gules charged with the saltires or was granted to a member of the lineage, but cannot represent it in a whole.

Juan José Antequera Luengo proposed on 22 August 1994 symbols that were never approved.
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular (11 x 18), quartered by a white cross outlined in green, 1. and 4. Red, 2. and 3. Yellow. Charged in the center with the local arms.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Or six tufts vert charged with six flowers argent (of Céspedes, lords and Marquis of Carrión), 2a. Argent a Cross of Calatrava gules, 2b. Vert a head of a garlic or. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.

[Juan José Antequera Luengo. Heráldica oficial de la provincia de Sevilla]

Ivan Sache & Klaus-Michael Schneider, 27 May 2014