Last modified: 2020-10-23 by ivan sache
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![[Flag]](../images/e/es-ba-fa.gif)
Flag of Fuente del Arco - Image by Ivan Sache, 15 March 2020
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The municipality of Fuente del Arco (693 inhabitants in 2017; 11,536 ha; municipal website) is located on the border with Andalusia (Province of Seville), 130 km south-east of Badajoz and 15 km south-east of Llerena. The municipality is made of the villages of Fuente del Arco, Estación (13 inh.) and Valdecigüeñas (28 inh.).
Fuente del Arco has been identified with the Celtic settlement named Contributa. The Lusitanian chief Viriatus stationed part of his troops there and won a battle nearby.
Thr area was reconquered in 1240 by the Order of Saint James. The village was resettled in 1270 by Master Pelayo Pérez Correa after the battle of Tentudía. The tradition says that the master sticked his sword down to the soil; the water that soon gushed forth indicated the presence of a source, so that Pérez offered to erect a fountain [fuente] protected by an arch [arco].
Fuente del Arco was grante the status of villa in 1561 by King Philip II, separating from Reina.
Ivan Sache, 15 March 2020
The flag of Fuente del Arco, adopted on 29 July 2005 by the Municipal Council and validated by the Assessing Council of Honors and Distinctions of the Government of Extremadura, is prescribed by an Order issued on 12 May 2006 by the Government of Extremadura and published on 1 July 2006 in the official gazette of Extremadura, No. 77, p. 9,618-9,619 (text).
The flag is described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular panel, in proportions 2:3. White panel with a cross in height 1/10 of the flag's width, whose arms are made or three equal stripes, blue, white and yellow, alternate. Charged in the center with the municipal coat of arms.
The coat of arms of Fuente del Arco, adopted on 19 November 2004 by the Municipal Council and validated by the Assessing Council of Honors and Distinctions of the Government of Extremadura, is prescribed by an Order issued on 11 May 2006 by the Government of Extremadura and published on 30 May 2006 in the official gazette of Extremadura, No. 63, p. 11,933 (text).
The coat of arms is described as follows:
Coat of arms: Azure a fountain or with three waterpipes surmounted by an arch argent masoned sable. A bordure argent charged with two crosses of the Military Order of Saint James in the chief's cantons and inscribed with the motto 'Hic incipit Extremadura' in letters sable. The shield surmounted by a Royal Spanish crown.
The arms represent the monument erected in 1846 to recall the origin of the town, its namesake and its geographical location - the Latin motto means "Here starts Extremadura".
![[Flag]](../images/e/es-ba-f1.gif)
Former, unofficial flag of Fuente del Arco - Image by Ivan Sache, 15 March 2020
The memoir supporting the symbols was redacted by Abelardo Muñoz Sánchez, member of the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogic Studies of Extremadura.
The writer and philologist Manuel Vilches Morales explained in the review La Jayona that the flag and arms hitherto used, in specific occasions, by the municipality, lacked historical rigor and were not compliant with the norms of heraldry. The flag (photo) was horizontally divided green-white-yellow, without any but "unrealistic" meaning.
Historical seals used by the municipality feature the fountain (photo) and arch; these elements, however, are never inscribed within a delimited field. Accordingly, these seals cannot be considered as featuring proper coats of arms.
[Hoy, 3 July 2006]
Ivan Sache, 15 March 2020
