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La Rioja (Spain)

Autonomous Community of La Rioja, Comunidad Autónoma de La Rioja

Colours according to the 1985 Manual de Identidad Corporativa (Corporate Identity Handbook)
image by António Martins

See also:

Spain

Official Flag

2:3
image by Antonio Gutiérrez, taken with permission from the S.E.V. website, 27 Nov 2002

Coat-of-Arms

image by Antonio Gutiérrez, taken with permission from the S.E.V. website, 27 Nov 2002

Colour of Top Stripe

I recall having read something about the upper stripe standing for the famous Rioja wine.

António Martins, 02 Oct 1998

According to Calvo and Grávalos 1983, the red stripe certainly intends to be Rioja red wine coloured, ie. dark red.

Santiago Dotor, 05 Oct 1998

According to the Act of adoption of Rioja's flag passed by the Diputación Provincial (provincial council) on 14th August 1979, the meaning of the colours is the following:

white: light
yellow: fertility
red: vineyard
green: vegetable garden

When the flag bears a coat-of-arms, this has a blue background representative of the provincial rivers.

Jaume Ollé, 19 Dec 1998

Colours of the flag as they appear in the Manual de Identidad Corporativa (Corporate Identity Handbook) of 1985:

Red: Pantone Warm Red
Green: Pantone 354
Yellow: Pantone 109

I hope this sheds light on the controversy about the colour of the upper stripe of this flag.

Antonio Gutiérrez, 20 Jul 1999

Former Province of Logroño

image by Eugene Ipavec, 28 May 2009

Even though in Spanish monoprovincial regions the provincial and regional competences are merged into one and the same entity, the former flag of Logroño province was not that of nowadays La Rioja. The province of Logroño changed officially its name to province of La Rioja several years ago (as did Oviedo to Asturias and Santander to Cantabria). Prior to the establishment of Autonomous Communities, the province of Logroño had another flag (rather it was the flag of the Diputación Provincial de Logroño [provincial council]). Once the Autonomous Community of La Rioja was established, the Diputación Provincial ceased to exist [early 1980s] and its competences were assumed by the Autonomous Community, and the provincial flag was substituted with the current one.

Antonio Gutiérrez, 16 Sep 1999

The former province of Logroño's flag was vertically yellow-red bordered in all sides in blue, with, in the upper fly corner and upper hoist corner, a golden fleur-de-lys, and in center of the lower border another golden fleur-de-lys. As far I know this flag was never officially adopted – but it was certainly officially used.

Jaume Ollé, 27 Nov 1999

This same motif is visible in the general layout of the current arms of La Rioja, as seen above.

Eugene Ipavec, 28 May 2009