Last modified: 2015-07-28 by ivan sache
Keywords: spain | navarra | baztan | saltire (brown) | burgundy cross |
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![[Baztan Valley (Navarre Province, Basque Country, Spain)]](../images/e/es-na-bz.gif) image by Eugene Ipavec, 14 Feb 2010 |
![[Baztan Valley (Navarre Province, Basque Country, Spain)]](../images/e/es-na-bz2.gif) image by Jaume Ollé, 31 Mar 2005 |
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Baztan Valley is in Navarre. The flag is square, not rectangular. You can see it at my website.
Aingeru Astui Zarraga, 04 Apr 2005
That the flag is square is not correct or at least was not correct at the date when the flag was drawn, according to this photo in which you can see the flag seems to be more or less rectangular and certainly not square. I believe that in 1998 there only existed a single manufactured flag and this was rectangular. The square version could be a historical flag.
Jaume Ollé, 10 Apr 2005
An article published in "Noticias de Navarra" sheds more light on this flag.
The Baztan Valley flag kept in the town hall of Baztan has been subjected to a three-year restoration, conducted by the Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural (IPC) under the leadership of Margarita Acuña García. The flag is said to have been won by the fighters from Baztan in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212, causing the splitting of the Almohad Empire and boosting the reconquest of southern Spain by the Christians).
According to the Department of Textile Conservation and Restoration of IPC, the flag appears to be "a replica of the original flag, made of pieces of different colour, a big Burgundy red saltire surrounded by red, yellow, green, white and beige triangles." Its design recalls the colours of some regiments in the second half of the 17th century. Nothing is really known on the original flag from the 13th century, widely cited by historians. The flag has already been restored several times with several layers of fabric. Kept in a locker not properly closed, the flag has had its fabric and colours deteriorate. The restorers said the flag "would have broken into small pieces" if extracted from the locker without care.
The flag was removed from the town hall of Baztan only twice, in 1929 for the Ibero-American Exhibition in Seville and in 2007 for the restoration.
The flag is indeed made of two interlaced flags; both flags have been restored but only the one considered as the older will be shown to the public. On the photo attached to the article, the flag appears to be square and not rectangular.
Source: "Noticias de Navarra," 10 Feb 2010
The border of the real flag has much fewer triangles than the image shown in Wikipedia. The rectangular version also has much more triangles; it must be a replica – the original flag, or at least its oldest known replica, being square.
Ivan Sache, 10 Feb 2010
