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Órgiva (Municipality, Andalusia, Spain)

Flag of Órgiva - Image from the Símbolos de Granada website, 14 May 2014

Presentation of Órgiva
Symbols of Órgiva

See also:

Presentation of Órgiva

The municipality of Órgiva (5,393 inhabitants in 2014; 13,414 ha; municipal website) is located 50 km south of Granada. The municipality is made of the town of Órgiva and of the villages of Bayacas, Tablones, Agustines-Tijola, Alcázar, Olias, Fregenite, Bargís and Las Barreras. The former municipality of Alcázar y Fregenite was incorporated to Órgiva by Decree No. 3,683, adopted on 23 December 1972 by the Spanish Government and published on 18 January 1973 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 16, p. 965 (text).

Órgiva has been identified with the Greek colony of Exoche, mentioned by Ptolemy. However, the place was first documented, as Hisn Órgiva, a fortress part of the taha of Elvira, by Al-Idrisi, in the 12th century. The village was renamed Albastch ("a plain") during the Nasrid rule, and, after the Christian reconquest, Albacete de Órgiva. Offerred in 1492 by the Catholic Monarchs to Boabdil as a place of retreat, Órgiva was eventually granted to Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (1453-1515, aka the "Great Captain") after the first Morisco rebellion. The subsequent lords of the domain were the Duke of Sesa, the Córdoba y Ayala, the Marquis of Balençuela and the Counts of Sástago.

Ivan Sache, 14 May 2014

Symbols of Órgiva

The flag (photo) and arms of Órgiva, approved on 28 June 2013 by the Municipal Council and submitted on 4 July 2013 to the Directorate General of the Local Administration, are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 10 July 2013 by the Directorate General of the Local Administration and published on 23 July 2013 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 143, p. 141 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 2:3, made of two vertical stripes. The first, along the hoist, of 1/3, white. The remaining 2/3 divided by a diagonal running from the upper angle on the border with the white stripe to the fly's lower angle, the upper part, green, and the lower part, crimson. The municipal coat of arms placed on the white stripe.
Coat of arms: Quarterly of nine. Inescutcheon azure a tower argent. Chief center gules a castle or port and windows azure, dexter argent six roundels sable, sinister argent a lion rampant sable langued gules. Flanks or three fesses gules. Base vert a pomegranate proper faceted gules leaved, dexter argent a lion rampant sable langued gules, sinister argent six roundels sable. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.

The symbols, designed by José Luis Parra and Francisco Javier Parra, were presented on 11 April 2013 to the Municipal Council (photo) and inaugurated on 5 October 2013 by Susana Díaz, President of the Government of Andalusia (photo).

The inesctucheon represents the Moorish castle of Órgiva; the former, unofficial coat of arms used by the town featured a chained Moor, which was deemed offending and removed from the new arms. The angle quarters of the shield shows the arms of two important lineages that ruled Órgiva, the Sástago (roundels) and the Valenzuela (lion). The lateral quarters show the arms of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, first lord of Órgiva. The arms are completed by quarters representing Castile (castle) and the old Kingdom of Granada (pomegranate, granada).
[Símbolos de Granada website]

Ivan Sache & Klaus-Michael Schneider, 14 May 2014