^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Alozaina (Municipality, Andalusia, Spain)

Flag of Alozaina, left, as prescribed and hoisted indoors; right, as hoisted outdoors - Images from the Símbolos de Málaga website, 14 September 2016

Presentation of Alozaina
Symbols of Alozaina

See also:

Presentation of Alozaina

The municipality of Alozaina (2,082 inhabitants in 2015, 3,385 ha) is located 50 km west of Málaga.

The origins of human settlement in the area go back a very long time indeed: fossils found in the municipality of Alozaina show that people lived here many thousands of years ago, and that there was once a lake or sea here called Los Gavilanes. Fossil remains have also been found in the Jorox area, in the Cave of Algarrobo, where hunting ustensils from the Upper Paleolithic era and two gold trumpets from the Bronze Age were discovered and are now in the Archaeological Museum in Málaga. There were decorated cups and other objects found in Iberian, and perhaps Phoenician, burial grounds, and the Romans left their mark here too in the Albar area of the Monte, with a column and a type of altar stone found there. Roman remains have also been discovered in the Ardite area. With the arrival of the Moors the fortifications at Ardite and Aloçaina were built, and this led to the establishment of a fortified settlement that in turn led to the name of the town.
Alozaina was visited by the troops of the Catholic Monarchs in 1484, when the re-population of the area by Christians began. After the Morisco rebellion in 1568, the town was sacked and destroyed. Alozaina was declared a municipality on 12 April 1492.

Ivan Sache & Blas Delgado, 14 September 2016

Symbols of Alozaina

The flag of Alozaina (photo, photo) is prescribed by Decree No. 80, adopted on 7 May 1986 by the Government of Andalusia and published on 22 May 1986 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 46, p. 1,635 (text). This was confirmed by a Resolution adopted on 30 November 2004 by the Directorate General of the Local Administration and published on 20 December 2004 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 246, pp. 28,986-29,002 (text).
The flag is described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular, made of three horizontal stripes in proportions 2-1-2, with the following colours: red in the upper stripe, as the symbol of liberty, white in the central stripe, in width half o the width of the upper or lower stripe, as the symbol of the village and his houses, green in the lower stripe, as the symbol of the Alozaina countryside and its olive trees. In the center, the coat of arms of the town.

The flag hoisted outside the Town Hall (photo, photo) appears to have equal stripes and no coat of arms in the center.

Flag of Alozaina, as originally proposed by the Municipal Council - Images from the Símbolos de Málaga website, 14 September 2016

The Royal Academy of History validated the proposed flag "without any inconvenient", in spite of the dubious symbolic of the colour, recognizing great "flexibility" in the design of local flags. The Academy recommended, as usual, to add the municipal coat of arms on the flag.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 1986 183:1, 133]

The coat of arms of Alozaina is prescribed an Order adopted on 11 April 1986 by the Government of Andalusia and published on 29 April 1986 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 36, p. 1,282 (text). This was confirmed by a Resolution adopted on 30 November 2004 by the Directorate General of the Local Administration and published on 20 December 2004 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 246, pp. 28,986-29,002 (text).
The coat of arms is described as follows:

Coat of arms: Azure a tower or masoned sable on a mount proper accosted sinister by a ladder or on its crenels dexter a woman throwing down bee-hives or on Moriscos chased by a bee swarm of the same. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown open [description skipped].

The arms pictures the heroin María Sagredo, who defended the town, then inhabited only by women, children and elder, during the Morisco rebellion of 1570.
[Municipal website]

The Royal Academy of History validated the proposed coat of arms, presented as an "adaptation and transformation" of the arms used at the time of submission. The great number of charges make the plastic interpretation difficult. The Academy recommended to substitute a Royal crown closed to the Royal crown open [which was not done].
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 1986 183:1, 133]

Ivan Sache, 14 September 2016