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Los Marines (Municipality, Andalusia, Spain)

Last modified: 2016-12-24 by ivan sache
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[Flag]

Flag of Los Marines - Image from the Símbolos de Huelva website, 1 September 2016


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Presentation of Los Marines

The municipality of Los Marines (273 inhabitants in 2015; 989 ha, therefore the smallest municipality in the province by its area) is located 110 km north of Huelva.

Los Marines was probably named for its founders, the Marín brothers, who established in the 14th century two villages, El Alto and El Moralillo. There is, however, no historical evidence for this explanation.
The local tradition says that the name of the village (lit. "The Seamen") was coined by King Carlos III, after the villagers had required the establishment of a sea port in the village; the king consoled the villagers by explaining they would be toponymically located "close to the sea". The village's elder recall that the young men of the village once systematically served in the Navy.
[Juan José Antequera. Principios de transmisibilidad en las heráldicas officiales de Sevilla, Córdoba y Huelva]

Ivan Sache, 1 September 2016


Symbols of Los Marines

The flag and arms of Los Marines, adopted on 25 June 1998 and ratified on 18 May 2000 by the Municipal Council and validated on 14 December 2000 by the Royal Academy of Córdoba, are prescribed by Decree No. 156, adopted on 26 June 2001 by the Government of Andalusia and published on 19 July 2001 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 82, pp. 12,313-12,314 (text). This was confirmed by a Resolution adopted on 30 November 2004 by the Government of Andalusia and published on 20 December 2004 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 246, pp. 28,986-29,002 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 11 x 18. Reseda yellow nebuly at the third of its length, green at hoist. Charged in the center with the coat of arms of the place.
Coat of arms: Vert a branch of chestnut or with three burs of the same fimbriated sable leaved or. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.

The Preamble of the Decree provides the following details:
Los Marines separated from Aracena in 1768 when granted the status of villa, as the result of a succession of petitions tabled by the villagers who argued that the village was of age. According to recent investigations, Los Marines increased during the re-settlement of the Huelva mountains by people from the valley of Sil, organized in the 14th century.
Los Marines is located in a zone with unique climatic features in Andalusia, favourable to the growth of chestnut, a tree specific of northern latitudes. The chestnut culture is highlighted in construction, gastronomy, economy and folklore. Accordingly, the tree was represented on the coat of arms, more specifically by its fruit, singularly hedgehog-shaped (the bur is called in Spanish erizo, "a hedgehog").

The symbols were proposed on 11 June 1998 by Juan José Antequera.
An earlier flag proposal, submitted by the same designer on 15 September 1994 with another coat of arms, "Or a mount vert charged with an anchor or", was rejected by the Municipal Council. The designer then proposed a flag horizontally divided green-yellow-green-yellow-green with the coat of arms in the center, which was not accepted, either. The Municipal Council eventually selected the first proposed design, with the new coat of arms.
[Juan José Antequera. Principios de transmisibilidad en las heráldicas officiales de Sevilla, Córdoba y Huelva]

Ivan Sache, 1 September 2016