Tomorrow (4 September) the stage starts from
Calatyud in the province of Zaragoza. Catalayud's arms contain neither castle nor the pallets of Aragon:
Escudo: partido de oro y gules, y brochante un caballero armado de punta en blanco, al natural, que sostiene en su diestra una lanza con un pendón de plata cargado de una cruz griega de gules, y que cabalga en un caballo de plata; campaña de plata con la leyenda en letras capitales de sable AUGUSTA BILBILIS. Timbrado de corona real abierta.
Augusta Bilbilis was the Roman name of the town, Bilbilis being the earlier Celtiberian name. Apparently the very first coins minted in Bilbilis featured a mounted man with a spear, so it seems that the herald responsible for the CoA had a very good handle on Calatyud's history.
The Vuelta's finishing line tomorrow is at
Tarazona, also in Zaragoza province. Here the herald also tried hard to include the town's early history, though I think you will agree with a less pleasing result:
Cuadrilondo rectangular de base conopial, que trae, de azur, un castillo de oro, mazonado de sable, aclarado de gules y rastrillado de plata, acostado por dos escudetes con el Señal Real de Aragón y cuyo homenaje central está sumado de dos sarmientos de inople, frutados de púrpura y fileteados de oro, los cuales se cruzan formando un óvalo resaltado de una filacteria de plata con el lema, en letras capitales de sable, VICTRIX, el cual encierra una flor de lis de oro; bordura de plata cargada con el lema, en letras capitales de sable, *TVRIASO *TVBALCAIN ME AEDIFICAVIT HERCULES ME REAEDIFICAVIT. Al timbre, Corona Real abierta.
The Roman name of the town was
Turiaso, hence the word in chief. The remainder of the bordure consists of the ancient claim that the town was built by
Tubalcain and rebuilt by
Hercules. The reason for the word
Victrix (victorious) is unclear (to me), unless it refers to the Roman
Legio VI Victrix which was heavily involved in the final conquest of the peninsula.