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Alcaracejos (Municipality, Andalusia, Spain)

Flag of Alcaracejos - Image from the Símbolos de Córdoba website, 11 November 2018

Presentation of Alcaracejos
Symbols of Alcaracejos

See also:

Presentation of Alcaracejos

The municipality of Alcaracejos (1,496 inhabitants in 2017; 17,562 ha; municipal website) is located 70 km north of Córdoba.

Alcaracejos was established in the early 15th century; in 1488, it separated from Torremilano and was granted the status of villa, as one of the Seite Villas de Los Pedroches. Those seven towns (Alcaracejos, Añora, Pedroche, Pozoblanco, Torrecampo, Torremilano and Villanueva de Córdoba) depended directly of the Council of Córdoba and were not submitted to the rule of any feudal lord. The seven towns, Alcaracejos included, were sold in 1560 by Philip II to the Marquis of El Carpio, to be reintegrated to the Royal domain in 1747. The lead and copper mines boosted the demographic development of the town in the 19th century.

Ivan Sache, 11 November 2018

Symbols of Alcaracejos

The flag and modified arms of Alcaracejos, adopted on 26 June 2018 by the Municipal Council and submitted on 12 July 2018 to the Directorate General of the Local Administration, are prescribed by a Resolution adopted on 5 September 2018 by the Directorate General of the Local Administration and published on 11 September 2018 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 176, pp. 68-69 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 3:2 (length on width), red with an inner orle in width 1/17 of the flag's width, separated from the border by the same distance. Charged in the center with the municipal coat of arms.
Coat of arms: Spanish shield. Per fess, 1. Argent sinister a castle proper dexter a lion rampant gules, 2a. Azure a porticco argent in base three fesses wavy argent, 2b. Vert a holly oak or. Grafted in base, Argent a scallop gules. The shield surmounted by a Spanish Royal crown open.

The former coat of arms of Alcaracejos was prescribed by a Decree adopted on 5 May 1954 by the Spanish Government and published on 16 May 1954 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 136, p. 3,291 (text).
The coat of arms, which was validated by the Royal Academy of History, is not described in the Decree.

The coat of arms was "Per fess, 1. Argent a lion rampant or, 2. Argent a castle or a scroll or inscribed with the town's name. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown open".
The fortress refers to a local tradition claiming that the town was originally named Alcázar Viejo (Old Fortress). The Almanac of the Diocese of Córdoba said in 1875: "According to the local tradition, Caliph Abd ar-Rahman II let build a sumptuous palace in the Pedroches valley, which he used as a lodge when hunting hares and partridges. After the Christian reconquest, shepherds from Pedroche erected huts nearby, calling the site Alcázar Viejo". This theory does no explain the plural form of Alcaracejos; moreover, there is little archeological evidence of an Arab foundation in the neighborhood.
[Municipal website]

Ivan Sache, 11 November 2018