^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

San Fernando de Henares (Municipality, Community of Madrid, Spain)

Flag of San Fernando de Henares - Image by "Asqueladd" (Wikimedia Commons), 24 July 2015

Presentation of San Fernando de Henares
Symbols of San Fernando de Henares

See also:

Presentation of San Fernando de Henares

The municipality of San Fernando de Henares (40,781 inhabitants in 2014; 3,929 ha) is located in the east of the Community of Madrid, 15 km of Madrid. In the 1970s, San Fernando became a main component of the industrial belt that surrounds the town of Madrid, while agriculture totally disappeared. The municipality experienced a demographic boom in the last decades of the 20th century, its population increasing from 4,037 inhabitants in 1960 to 36,244 in 2001.

San Fernando de Henares was established in 1746 by King Philip V on a plot acquired from the Count of Barajas to set up a Royal cloth factory (Real Fábrica de Paños) and a model town. The factory was inaugurated by King Ferdinand VI. Employing 1,000 workers, the factory worked less than 20 years. It had been built before any worker's estate, which caused a big social problem; moreover, the area, watered by rivers Jarama and Henares, was infested by malaria in summertime. The workers who survived the disease were transferred to the neighbouring factories of Vicálvaro and Brihuega. The philanthropic project ended in a ruinous experiment. Eventually closed in 1766, the factory was converted into an hospital. Sold in 1865 to private owners, the factory was totally ruined at the end of the Civil War. The main facade of the today's Town Hall is the only remaining part of the historical factory.
[El Pais, 10 March 2005]

Ivan Sache, 24 July 2015

Symbols of San Fernando de Henares

The flag of San Fernando de Henares (photo, photo, photos) is prescribed by a Decree adopted on 5 June 1997 by the Government of the Community of Madrid and published on 15 October 1997 in the official gazette of the Community of Madrid, No. 245, p. 10 (text) and on 7 November 1997 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 267, p. 32,671 (text).
The flag is described as follows:

Flag: Proportions 2:3. Red panel diagonally divided from the upper hoist to the lower fly by a blue wavy stripe in width 1/8 of the flag's width and bordered in white, of width 1/8 of the stripe's width. In the center is placed the crowned coat of arms of the municipality.

The coat of arms of San Fernando de Henares is prescribed by Royal Decree No. 1,606, adopted on 2 June 1977 and published on 8 July 1977 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 160, p. 15,173-15,174 (text).
The coat of arms, validated by the Royal Academy of History, is described as follows:

Coat of arms: Vert a palace or masoned sable port and windows gules ensigned by a Royal crown closed in base the anagram "F. VI" (Ferdinand VI) all or [Crown not mentioned].

The Royal Academy of History rejected the proposal of modernization of the coat of arms submitted by the municipality. The two proposed variants are equally unacceptable. The modifications, for instance the representation of the building and the bent rays simulating water are unknown to the heraldic tradition. The excessive schematization of the crown is also rejected.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 2007, 104:2; 328-329]

This rejection did not prevent the municipality to use the modernized version of the coat of arms, but the flag keeps the older version.

Ivan Sache, 24 July 2015