La Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain) 2015

Spanish Heraldry
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JMcMillan
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Re: La Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain)

Postby JMcMillan » 25 Aug 2015, 13:34

Chris Green wrote:
Escudo medio partido y cortado: 1º de Castilla; 2º, de León; 3º, de oro, una zorra andante, de sable. Bordadura general de plata cargada con la inscripción "IN DEI NOMINE AMEN". Al timbre, corona real abierta


"Una zorra" is apparently the Spanish for a bitch, and not a fox as the enblazonment led me to expect.


Zorra actually means "vixen," a female fox. (cf zorro, the fox)
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Re: La Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain)

Postby Chris Green » 25 Aug 2015, 14:45

Zorra actually means "vixen," a female fox. (cf zorro, the fox)


I am pleased to hear it. My Google search was too hasty. I had an inkling that the heroic Californian fighter for justice "Zorro" was the Fox - should have followed that line of thought.
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Re: La Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain)

Postby Chris Green » 25 Aug 2015, 17:08

Tomorrow's (26 August) stage takes the Vuelta from Rota to Alcalá de Guadaíra. Rota's CoA is, somewhat predictably in these parts, a castle and water. The unusual feature is the bordure featuring a rosary.

Image

De azur, castillo de oro, mazonado de sable y aclarado de gules, sobre ondas de azur y plata. Bordura de oro con un rosario de sable. Al timbre Corona Ducal


The arms of Alcalá not only feature water and a castle (this time on a bridge) but drive a coach and horses through the tincture "rule".

Image

Perhaps someone who is expert in Hispanic heraldry can say whether much notice is taken of the tincture "rule" in Spain.
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Re: La Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain)

Postby JMcMillan » 25 Aug 2015, 17:39

Chris Green wrote:The arms of Alcalá not only feature water and a castle (this time on a bridge) but drive a coach and horses through the tincture "rule".

Perhaps someone who is expert in Hispanic heraldry can say whether much notice is taken of the tincture "rule" in Spain.


Unless the arms have been altered in the last few decades, the emblazonment would seem to be wrong. From the Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia (Madrid 1986), the blazon approved in 1985 was "Escudo de azul un puente de plata, mazonado de sable, sobre ondas de plata y azur, sumado de un castillo tambien de plata, almenado y mazonado de sable y aclarado de gules, acompan~ado de dos llaves de sable, fileteadas de plata, una en cada flanco, guardas arriba, en palo y superadas por la imagen del Apostol San Mateo."

Azure a bridge Argent masoned Sable upon waves Argent and Azure, surmounted by a castle also Argent, ported and masoned Sable and windows Gules between two keys palewise Sable fimbriated Argent, one in each flank, wards upward, and at the top the image of the Apostle St. Mark.

The specification that the keys are fimbriated suggests that the tincture rule is taken seriously, at least by Dalmiro de la Valgoma, who prepared the blazon.

I'll see if I can find anything more recent.
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Re: La Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain)

Postby JMcMillan » 25 Aug 2015, 17:52

The current, official, publication of the local symbols of Andalusia, Seville provincial volume,

http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/educacio ... c/1782.pdf

gives the arms as approved in 1985, and cites official publication in the Andalusian Official Bulletin in 2004. These are the arms with the azure field, bridge and tower argent.

But this website on the municipal symbols of the Seville province

https://sites.google.com/site/simbolosd ... e-guadaira

gives this as well as another approved by the Junta of Andalucia, as above, and another approved earlier by the town's own administration (ayuntamiento) in 1985, silver with the bridge and tower described as "albero." which translates as "white" (!). It attributes this "discrepancy" to the town's practice of using the arms only in practice only in line-drawing form without indication of tinctures. I'm not sure that's very convincing, and it doesn't explain the images with silver field and gold structures, or others available on line with the bridge and castle shown in light brown.
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Re: La Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain)

Postby Chris Green » 26 Aug 2015, 08:55

I've just got to show you the arms of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, just north of Rota:

Image

De plata, un toro de carnación, alado, echado sobre unos evangelios, de oro, sobre ondas de azur y plata, sumado el toro de una torre en su color, y ésta superada por una estrella de oro, todo orlado con la leyenda: “Luciferi Fanum”. Al timbre, corona real cerrada


One doesn't come across a carnation-coloured winged bull every day! The bull (not usually pink) of course represents St Luke (the patron saint of Sanlúcar) and is sitting on a book (St Luke's Gospel). Not sure where the quill pen and ink-pot stem from, possibly to indicate that St Luke wrote the gospel? The gospel should, according to the blazon, be gold, and according to the Sanlúcar website the text should read "Luciferi Fanum Senatus" (which literally means "Senate of the Temple of Lucifer (or of the light-giver)" - apparently "Luciferi Fanum" is an ancient name for Sanlúcar). At a guess the text with "Senatus" is for use by the municipality and without for the town in general.

http://www.sanlucardebarrameda.es/la-ciudad/escudo-y-heraldica
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Re: La Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain)

Postby JMcMillan » 26 Aug 2015, 13:54

It appears from the city's own website, given by Chris, and from the official publication of the arms of Cadiz province, http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/educacio ... c/1722.pdf
that the bull is actually depicted either proper or a much darker pink, almost indistinguishable from red, than was used by whoever did the Wikipedia emblazonment. Perhaps carnacion signifies the natural skin color of whatever is being blazoned and not necessarily the pinkish color of a Caucasian human with fair skin. Perhaps a Spanish heraldist can clarify this.

I also note that there's inconsistency in whether the bordure in gold or red--perhaps it is considered heraldically inconsequential since the blazon provides only that the basic arms are "all surrounded by the legend" with the tinctures unspecified, but in both official sources the inscription runs clockwise across the top of the shield rather than counterclockwise around the bottom. Again, it may be considered a matter of indifference.
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Re: La Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain)

Postby Chris Green » 27 Aug 2015, 05:55

Today (27 August) the Vuelta departs from Córdoba whose arms are:

Image

En campo de plata, un león rampante, de gules, linguado de lo mismo, uñado de oro y coronado del mismo. Bordura componada de dieciocho compones, nueve de gules con catillo de oro, almenado y alarado de azur, alternados con nueve de plata, con un león rampante de púrpura


Hardly surprisingly the city of Córdoba is situated in the province of Córdoba, whose arms are:

Image

León rampante rojo en campo de plata, rodeado de una orla de castillos de oro en campo rojo, alternando con leones rojos en campo de plata, cuyo número no era fijo, con corona real de ocho florones.


I have my doubts about the emblazonment of the provincial arms. The bordure has far fewer compartments than other bordures with the same blazon, resulting in an odd arrangement at the top corners.

The stage finishes at the Sierra de Cazorla which is in the province of Jaén whose arms are:

Image

Cuartelado en cruz: I y IV, de oro. II y III, de gules. Bordura de catorce piezas, que carga alternantes, en campo de gules, un castillo de oro, almenado de tres almenas, mazonado de sable y aclarado de azur; y en campo de plata, un león rampante de gules, coronado de oro, lampasado y armado de lo mismo. Sobre el todo, escudete oval, que en campo de plata trae la faz del Santo Rostro al natural. Contorno hispano-francés y timbre de corona real cerrada, que se compone de un círculo de oro y pedrería, con ocho florones y ocho perlas intercaladas, cerrada con ocho diademas guarnecidas, también de perlas, que convergen en un mundo de azur, con un ecuador y un semimeridiano de oro, y sumado de una cruz de oro, forrada la corona de gules.


The Santo Rostro refers to the image of the face of Jesus and thus to the reverence held in medieval times for the so-called "Veil of Veronica" said to bear the image of Christ's face. A painting of the "Veil of Veronica" is to be found in Jaén cathedral.
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Re: La Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain)

Postby Chris Green » 27 Aug 2015, 17:20

Tomorrow (28 August) the Vuelta enters the province of Granada. I must admit to having an Anglo-Saxon giggle when I saw the arms:

Image

El escudo oficial actual de la ciudad de Granada, está cubierto por la Corona Real, orlado con una cinta rematada en su parte inferior por una borla de oro, en la que van grabadas en igual metal los Títulos de la ciudad, y su interior se divide en tres cuarteles, el que ocupa su mitad superior con los Reyes Católicos sentados en sus tronos, con corona y manto, en sus colores naturales, el Rey Fernando V a la derecha, con una espada en la mano diestra y la Reina Isabel I con un cetro en la suya, ambos sobre campo de plata y cubiertos por un dosel rojo. La parte inferior se divide en dos cuarteles, el de la derecha con la Torre de la Vela en plata, tremolándose en su parte superior la bandera de España, roja y amarilla, sobre fondo de oro. En el cuartel inferior izquierdo, hay una granada abierta en sus Colores naturales, sobre fondo de plata. Todo queda rodeado con dos castillos en el centro de su parte superior e inferior de la orla, en plata, con dos banderas de España rojas y amarillas en lo alto de cada una y en diagonal, sobre fondo de oro; alternándose a sus lados con un total de seis leones en sus colores naturales y vueltos hacia el interior, con cuatro torres de oro sobre fondo rojo


The herald who decided that a realistic representation of Ferdinand and Isabella was a suitable charge must surely have hated all heraldic artists. The choice of an opened pomegranate (granada apierta) was of course a logical punning device. (Very important of course for us English speakers to distinguish between a pomegranate and a grenade - the latter are not usually slipped and leaved!)

The route takes the cyclists through the town of Lanjarón, which is famous for its many street fountains and chalybeate baths, which are an important element of its CoA:

Image

Escudo cortado. Primero de azur, un monte de plata. Segundo, de gules, una fontana fluyente de aguas de plata y azur, acompañada de dos alfanges de plata. Al timbre corona real cerrada.


An alfange is a Moorish sabre.
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Re: La Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain)

Postby Chris Green » 28 Aug 2015, 16:00

Tomorrow's (29 August) stage ends in the city of Murcia, which lies in the autonomous region and province of Murcia. The city arms are:

Image

En campo de gules un corazón de este color, fileteado de oro, y en torno a él la leyenda –Priscas novissima exaltat et amor- cargado de una lis y un león del propio metal. Sumado de corona real y acompañado de seis coronas, también de oro, en dos, en dos y dos; bordura de León y Castilla, en sus esmaltes, en dieciséis componentes. Al timbre, corona real.


https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escudo_de_Murcia

and the region's/province's:

Image

Decreto 34/1983:
Artículo 1.º: La Región de Murcia tiene escudo propio, de acuerdo con lo que establece el Artículo 4.2 del Estatuto de Autonomía, cuya descripción en términos heráldicos es la siguiente:
Escudo raso, de perfil español.
Campo rojo o de gules.
En el cantón diestro del Jefe, cuatro castillos en oro formados de dos en dos, a modo de cuadrado.
En el cantón izquierdo de la punta, siete coronas de oro dispuestas en cuatro filas horizontales, de una, tres, dos y una, respectivamente.
Sobre el Escudo, Corona Real, por ser Murcia antiguamente Reino.
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