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![[Flag]](../images/e/es-tf-to.gif)
Flag of Tacoronte - Image by José Manuel Erbez, 19 April 2015
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The municipality of Tacoronte (23,929 inhabitants in 2014; 3,009 ha; municipal website) is located on the northern coast of Tenerife, 20 km of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The municipality is made of the town of Tacoronte (3,738 inh.) and another 20 settlements.
Tacoronte was ruled in the pre-Hispanic times by king (mency)
Acaymo. The place was colonized in 1496 by Sebasti‡n Machado, from
Guimarães; the first data on land sharing date back to 1497. The first
urban nucleus, Santa Catalina, emerged around a chapel dedicated to
St. Catherine. Smaller villages (San Jerónimo, San Juan, La Placeta,
La Caridad) were subsequently set up on land cleared from pines.
Population increased from 350 inhabitants in the 16th century to 2,780
at the end of the 17th century.
The town maintained in the 18th century a territorial militia, an
infantry regiment and a cavalry company. The troops stationed in
Tacoronte defended the island against Admiral Nelson in 1797.
Tacoronte was granted in 1911 the title of ciudad by King Alfonso
XIII, who had enjoyed his stay at Hotel Camacho and rewarded the
town's dedication "to agriculture, industry and commerce, as well as
its constant support to the Constitutional Monarchy".
Tacoronte is the birth town of the writer María Rosa Alonso
(1910-2011), awarded in 1987 the Literature Prize of the Canary
Islands. María Rosa Alonso studied philology at the University of
Madrid with José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955). A founding member of the Institute for Canarian Studies, she was Professor of Philology and
Literature at the University of La Laguna (1942-1953) and at the Los
Andes University (Venezuela). After her professional retirement, she
published several poems and articles in the local press.
[ABC Canarias, 29 May 2011]
Ivan Sache, 19 April 2015
The flag of Tacoronte is prescribed by a Decree adopted on 26
September 2011 by the Government of the Canary Islands and published
on 3 October 2011 in the official gazette of the Canary Islands, No.
195, pp. 24,868-24,870 (text.
The flag was originally adopted on 4 March 2011 by the Municipal
Council, as published on 16 March 2011 in the official gazette of the
Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, No. 42. The Heraldry Commission of
the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands rejected the proposed
symbol on 3 June 2011 because the supporting memoir did not state the
respective dimensions of the stripes of the flag, and further
recommended to center the coat of arms on the green stripe. The
Municipal Council corrected the description on 8 July 2011, explicitly
stating that the width of the green stripe is twice the width of the
other stripes and that the coat of arms is centered on the green
stripe; the report was forwarded to the Heraldry Commission, which
eventually validated the symbols on 12 September 2011.
The flag is described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 2:3 (one and a half longer than wide), with three stripes perpendicular to the hoist. The stripes are of the prominent colours in the municipal heraldry: red, green and yellow, the green stripe being twice wider than the red and the yellow ones. In the center of the flag is placed the coat of arms, centered on the green stripe.
The flag was inaugurated on 17 September 2012. Álvaro Dávila, Mayor of
Tacoronte, explained that red is a symbol of force, triumph, audacity
and highness; green is a symbol of honour, courtesy, abundance,
friendship, possession and the faithful reflect of the fields; yellow,
the heraldic representation of gold, is a symbol of light, power,
constancy, knowledge and magnanimity.
[La Opinión de Tenerife, 18 September 2012]
The coat of arms of Tacoronte is prescribed by Decree No. 509, adopted on 20 February 1976 by the Spanish Government and published on 18 March 1976 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 67, p. 5,579 (text).
The coat of arms, which included the modifications suggested by the Royal Academy of History, is described as follows:
Coat of arms: Gules five axes argent hilted or per saltire in chief a crown ancien or. A bordure gules three grapevine leaves vert in chief the word "Tagoro" in letters sable. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown.
According to José Manuel Erbez (Banderas y escudos de Canarias, 2007; website), the axes are taken from the arms of Sebastián Machado, the founder of the first urban settlement in the early 17th century. The old crown recalls that Tacoronte was rhe capital of one of the nine menceyatos (kingdoms) of the pre-Hispanic Canary Islands, whose name, Tagaro, is written on the shield's bordure. The grapevine leaves allude to the local wine production.
Ivan Sache, 19 April 2015
![[Flag]](../images/e/es-tf-t1.gif)
Banner of Tacoronte - Image by José Manuel Erbez, 19 April 2015
The banner (pendón) of Tacoronte is prescribed by a Decree adopted
on 1 March 2011 by the Government of the Canary Islands and published
on 9 March 2011 in the official gazette of the Canary Islands, No. 50,
pp. 4,978-4,97 (text.
The banner was originally adopted on 29 May 1997 by the Municipal
Council. The Heraldry Commission of the Autonomous Community of the
Canary Islands required on 24 October 1997 the suppression from the
banner of the year "1997", which cannot be considered as an historical
date such as "1497"; this was forwarded on 13 November 1997 to the
Municipal Council.
The Municipal Council corrected the banner on 5 May 2000, as published
on 29 May 2009 in the official gazette of the Province of Santa Cruz
de Tenerife, No. 101. The corrected report was validated on 8 February
2011 by the Heraldry Commission.
The banner is described as follows:
Banner: Panel [...] of 1.25 m in length and 1.25 m in width, garnet red. In the middle is embroidered the municipal coat of arms in full colours, in size 1/2 of the panel's height. The staff is equipped with three golden cordons , of 3 m in length each, ending with two tassels or.
Ivan Sache, 19 April 2015
![[Banner]](../images/e/es-tf-t2.gif)
Flag of Tacoronte, as seen on 30 January 2007 in the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Military Museum - Image by José Manuel Erbez, 19 April 2015
The former, unofficial flag of Tacoronte shown in the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Military Museum is white with the municipal coat of arms in the middle.
Klaus-Michael Schneider & Ivan Sache, 21 March 2008