Last modified: 2015-11-19 by ivan sache
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![[Flag]](../images/e/es-se-fa.gif)
Flag of Fuentes de Andalucía - Image from the Símbolos de Sevilla website, 27 October 2015
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The municipality of Fuentes de Andalucía (7,360 inhabitants in 2008; 15,018 ha; municipal website), is located 60 km west of Seville.
Transferred in 1316 by King Alfonso XI, the castle and domain of Fuentes, originally built by the Moors, belonged to Alvar Pérez de Guzmán, Alguacil Mayor (Chancellor) of Seville. On 15 February 1606, Philip III granted the Marquisate of Fuentes to Gome de Fuentes Guzmán, Knight of the Order of St. James. The probable site of the Iberian town of Obúlcula described by Ptolemy, Monclova was transfered by King Alfonso XI to Gil Bocanegra, a Genovese seaman appointed the 17th Admiral of Castile, as a reward for the seizure of Algeciras from the Moors. The castle of Monclova, once a Roman castrum, was used in all the subsequent war episodes that took place in the region. When peace resumed, it was transformed in a palace by the lord of Fuentes.
Ivan Sache, 30 June 2009
The flag and arms of Fuentes de Andalucía, adopted on 2 November 2007 by the Municipal Council and submitted on 28 January 2008 to the Directorate General of the Local Administration, are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 6 February 2008 by the Directorate General of the Local Administration and published on 19 February 2008 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 104, p. 34 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular flag, in proportions 3:2, made of two equal vertical stripes, blue at hoist and yellow at fly, the coat of arms in the center.
Coat of arms: Shield in Spanish shape. Per pale, 1. Or a castle gules port and windows and masoned sable, 2. Azure a fountain argent. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown.
Before the official adoption of the coat of arms in 2008, Fuentes de Andalucía used a coat of arms described as "Azure five fleurs-de-lis or per saltire a bordure argent eight caldrons sable. The shield surmounted by a Marquis' coronet."
Méndez Silva described the arms as "the arms of the lords, a blue shield with five golden fleurs-de-lis and orled with the Guzmán caldrons checky or and red". The parish priest reported in the last third of the 18th century to Tomás López that "the village was established by King Henry II, who granted to Bertrand Duguesclin the so-called Iron castle, of Moorish origin, soon sold to Pedro de Fuentes, Municipal Councillor of Seville, who named the village for him. The second name of the lineage was Guzmán, whose arms are a shield with five fleurs-de-lis orled by eight caldrons."
These arms were used until the last decades of the 20th century, with the shield either in French or Carlist shape, surmounted either by a Marquis' coronet or a noble's helmet. The caldrons in the bordure were represented sable instead of checky or and gules.
The fountains (fuentes) make the arms canting. However, Friar Pedro de San Cecilio, General Chronicler of Andalusia stated (Anales del Orden de Descalzos de Nuestra Señora de la Merced, 1669) that "the rationale for naming that place Fuentes is unknown to us. There is no fountain in the village, so that the inhabitants have to bring water from the Aljabara fountain, located westwards, half a league away. The Queen's fountain, located a quarter of league away, has been dried up for years." He further claims that "the name of the village was derived from the name of their lords, which is, however disputed. These lords are of genuine Castilian origin and not French, as could be supposed from the fleurs-de-lis on their arms."
The five fleurs-de-lis with the cauldrons on the bordure are proper to the Marquis of Los Fuentes, erected on 14 January 1603 by Philip III to Gome de Fuentes y Guzmán, Knight of the Order of St. James. In the beginning of the 14th century, Fuentes belonged to Alvar Pérez de Guzmán, alguacil mayor of Seville, who transferred it to Alonso Fernández and his wife, Isabel Belmaña, the daughter of Guilén de las Casas, Treasurer mayor of Andalusia. THe domain and the nobility title were incorporated in the 18th century into the County of Torralba.
Juan José Antequera Luengo proposed on 27 March 1995, upon request of the municipality, symbols that were never approved.
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 11 x 18, made of two parallel stripes perpendicular to the hoist, the first, yellow, the second, blue, with the coat of arms in the center.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Azure five fleurs-de-lis or per saltire a bordure argent eight caldrons sable (Marquis of Los Fuentes), 2. Azure a fountain or. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.
[Juan José Antequera Luengo. Heráldica oficial de la provincia de Sevilla]
Ivan Sache, 27 October 2015