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Dólar (Municipality, Andalusia, Spain)

Flag of Dólar - Image by Ivan Sache, 21 April 2014

Presentation of Dólar
Symbols of Dólar

See also:

Presentation of Dólar

The municipality of Dólar (612 inhabitants in 2013; 7,859 ha; unofficial website) is located 80 east of Granada and 25 km north-west of Guadix. The municipality is made of the villages of Dólar and El Pocico (13 inh.).

Dólar was a Moorish village protected by a castle, mentioned in the 12th century by the geographer Al-Idrisi. After the Christian reconquest, the castle was abandoned and the village was transferred to the Marquisate of Cenete, granted in 1491 to Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar y Mendoza.The village was resettled after the expelling of the Moriscos by Christian colonists from the Province of Jaén and other places.
The etymology of the village's name is disputed. The historian Ibn Aljathib (14th century), when describing the region of Guadix, claims that the village was inhabited by coopers who used an axe named dólar (in English, doloire or wagoner's axe). The village might also have been named for dolaria, "a woody place", or dar, "a house", probably refering to an inn located on the road to the Ragua Pass.

Ivan Sache, 21 April 2014

Symbols of Dólar

The flag and arms of Dólar, adopted on 22 February 1993 by the Municipal Council and validated on 29 April 1994 by the Royal Academy of History, are prescribed by Decree No. 143, adopted on 12 July 1994 by the Government of Andalusia and published on 1 September 1994 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 137, p. 10,815 (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 described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular panel, in proportions 2:3, green with a white saltire (St. Andrew's cross) reaching the edges of the flag and charged with eight red disks, two in each arm of the cross.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Vert a saltire argent, 2. Gules a tower argent. Grafted in base, eight roundels gules. The shield surmounted by a Royal Spanish crown.

The saltire recalls the village's patron saint, St. Andrew. The tower symbolizes the Arab castle, today ruined. The eight roundels represent the eight municipalities that form the Marquesado del Zenete district, to which Dólar belongs..
[Símbolos de las Entidades Locales de Andalucía. Granada (PDF file)]

Ivan Sache & Klaus-Michael Schneider, 14 May 2014