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Paymogo (Municipality, Andalusia, Spain)

Flag of Paymogo - Image from the Símbolos de Huelva website, 3 September 2016

Presentation of Paymogo
Symbols of Paymogo

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Presentation of Paymogo

The municipality of Paymogo (1,238 inhabitants in 2015; 21,400 ha) is located 80 km north-west of Huelva, on the border with Portugal, here river Chanza.

Paymogo is named, according to the local tradition, for a famous magus of the Sierra Morena. The whole region would have been named the Magus' Country (País del Mago). The magus is often portrayed as a brother of Guzmán the Good who used to collect medicinal plants in the mountains. The name of the town is more probably derived from the Luso-Latin words pagus, here, "a hamlet", and mogo, "a post delimiting a territory (in Spanish, mojón). Accordingly, Paymogo would have meant "a hamlet located close to the border". Paymogo was written Paimogo until the middle of the 19th century.
Another tradition says that the town was originally known as Paymoguillo. The population increased from 51 households in 1503 to 1,615 inhabitants in 1787. Honey and bee wax were a main source of income for Paymogo on the 18th century.
Located on the disputed border with Portugal, the town was raided several times and fortified accordingly. The castle originally erected in the 15th century was rebuilt in the 17th century. The St. Mary Magdalena church, built among the remains of the castle, was listed as a National Monument on 22 April 1944.

The industrialization of Paymogo started in the 19th century, with the exploitation of the pyrites mines of Romanera and Huerta Falsa, soon closed because they were not profitable. The holly oak forests of the municipality provide acorns used to feed pigs, from which ham is produced. Sheep breeding is another source of income in the municipality.

Ivan Sache, 3 September 2016

Symbols of Paymogo

The flag (photo) and arms of Paymogo, adopted on 26 October 1995 by the Municipal Council, are prescribed by Decree No. 203, adopted on 14 May 1996 by the Government of Andalusia and published on 18 July 1996 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 82, p. 8,259 (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, made of three stripes parallel to the hoist and of equal size, the first, purple, the second, white, and the third, yellow. Charged in the center with the local coat of arms.
Coat of arms: Purpure a tower or masoned sable port and windows azure ensigned by a bee argent. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.

The symbols were designed by Juan José Antequera.
The coat of arms is a "rehabilitation" of an ink sea used in the last third of the 19th century, quite infrequently, though. The oval seal features a tower ensigned by an insect that can be identified to a bee. In the last years of the century, the tower was transformed into an imperfect castle, rather a tower with three crenels, a gate and a single window. Never transformed into a coat of arms, the seal fell into oblivion.
The tower recalls that Paymogo was a border town, while the bee recalls that honey and bee wax were once main sources of income for the town.
[Juan José Antequera. Principios de transmisibilidad en las heráldicas officiales de Sevilla, Córdoba y Huelva]

Ivan Sache, 3 September 2016