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Castilleja del Campo (Municipality, Andalusia, Spain)

Flag of Castilleja del Campo - Image from the Símbolos de Sevilla website, 2 June 2014

Presentation of Castilleja del Campo
Symbols of Castilleja del Campo

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Presentation of Castilleja del Campo

The municipality of Castilleja del Campo (643 inhabitants in 2014; 1,622 ha; municipal website), is located 30 km west of Seville, on the border with the Province of Huelva.

Castilleja del Campo was already settled in the Roman times, as evidenced by the numerous remains (tombs, mosaics and pieces of pottery) found in archeological excavations. After the Muslim invasion, the settlement became an alquería known as Albençameit, where a garrison was stationed to watch the road, of Roman origin, that crossed the area. Following he conquest of Seville, Castilleja del Campo was incorporated into the Campo de Tesada.

Ivan Sache, 2 June 2014

Symbols of Castilleja del Campo

The flag (photo, photo, photo) and arms of Castilleja del Campo (municipal website), adopted on 29 April 1994 by the Municipal Council and validated by the Royal Academy of Córdoba, are prescribed by Decree No. 253, adopted on 10 October 1995 by the Government of Andalusia and published on 15 December 1995 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 159, p. 11,717 (text). This was confirmed by a Decree 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 symbols are prescribed as follows:

Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 11 x 18. Green with a yellow castle with red port and windows surrounded dexter by an eagle displayed and sinister by a lion rampant, all white. A red border charged with four six-pointed stars and four fleurs-de-lis, in turn, all white.
Coat of arms: Vert a castle or masoned sable port and windows gules surrounded dexter by an eagle displayed argent and sinister by a lion rampant of the same. A bordure gules charged with four fleurs-de-lis argent in the angles and four six-pointed stars of the same in chief, flanks and base. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.

The symbols were proposed on 10 March 1994 by Juan José Antequera Luengo. The flag is a banner of the municipal arms, which is not common in the Andalusian municipal heraldry.
The arms of the feudal lords were considered as representative of the town itself, which never used proper arms. The only known historical arms are indeed those of the Marquis, appended to several administrative documents from 1682 to the suppression of the feudal system. Those arms were granted on 20 August 1682 to Tomás Ponce de León y Cueto de la Madrid, 1st Marquis of Castilleja del Campo, by Antonio Gómez de Arévalo, Kings of Arms of Charles II. The arms were "Vert a castle or surrounded sinister by a lion rampant gules fimbriated argent and dexter by an eagle displayed. A bordure gules charged with four stars argent and four fleurs-de-lis of the same." The arms are canting, showing the red lion for the Ponce de León lineage.
The Marquis, however, did not use the granted arms but a shield with a curvy mantle, or, equally flawed, "Per fess, 1a. A lion, 1b. Three batons, 2. Three fleurs-de-lis in fess. A bordure charged with eight escutcheons." This is the coat of arms of the Ponce de León lineage - except that there should be four batons. The charges are often represented sable or gules without the fimbriation argent, breaking the rules of heraldry.
[Juan José Antequera Luengo. Heráldica oficial de la provincia de Sevilla]

Ivan Sache & Klaus-Michael Schneider, 2 June 2014