Villaflor (Municipality, Castilla y León, Spain)

Last modified: 2016-04-16 by ivan sache
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Flag of Villaflor - Image by "Asqueladd" (Wikimedia Commons), 5 March 2014

• Presentation of Villaflor
• Symbols of Villaflor

See also:

• Spain
• Castilla y León (Autonomous Community, Spain)
• Province of Ávila (Castilla y León, Spain)

Presentation of Villaflor

The municipality of Villaflor (134 inhabitants in 2010; 1,848 ha) is located in the central north of the Province of Ávila, 30 km of Ávila.

Ivan Sache, 4 May 2011

Symbols of Villaflor

The flag and arms of Villaflor are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 20 February 1995 by the Provincial Executive and published on 9 March 1995 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 48 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular flag, with proportions 2:3, made of two triangles formed by a diagonal running from the upper hoist angle to the lower hoist angle, the lower triangle red with a white rose and the upper triangle white with a red Saint James' Cross.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1a. Gules a village argent a crenelated tower issuant a King's bust argent, 1b. Argent a cross of the Order of Saint James gules, 2. Or a rose gules. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown closed.

The Royal Academy of History acknowledged the effort of the designer of the proposed coat of arms represent a town (villa) and a flower (flor). Armorials feature stylized representations of flowers, but not of towns. Accordingly, the designer presented an extremely complex view, in perspective, of a fortified town, crowded with towers, roofs and capitals, which is absolutely non compliant with the good heraldic style. The use of the cross of the Order of St. John is also very questionable, since its only justification is the dedication of the parish church to Apostle St. James; it is recommended to suppress this charge.
The assessment of the proposed flag shall be postponed until an acceptable design is proposed for the coat of arms. The Academy recalled that if the flag is not limited to a combination of coloured fields but includes heraldic charges, those should be represented in the same colour and arrangement as on the coat of arms. Otherwise, the place would have two different heraldic emblems.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 1995, 192, 2: 350]

Ivan Sache, 21 March 2015