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Cádiz (Municipality, Andalusia, Spain)

Flag of Cádiz, as seen on 5 November 2009 in different places of the town - Image from the Símbolos de Cadíz website, 28 November 2009

Presentation of Cádiz
Symbols of Cádiz
Variant of the flag

See also:

Presentation of Cádiz

The municipality of Cádiz (122,90 inhabitants in 2013; 1,210 ha; municipal website) is the capital of the Province of Cádiz .

Ivan Sache, 28 November 2009

The flag and arms of Cádiz, submitted on 2 December 2008 by the Municipal Council to the Directorate General of the Local Administration, is prescribed by a Decree adopted on 12 January 2009 by the Directorate General of the Local Administration and published on 23 January 2009 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 15, p. 66 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular, crimson red, with the municipal coat of arms in the middle.
Coat of arms: In the middle Hercules clad with a lion's fur flanked by two other lions he holds by the mane, a column on each side bearing the writing: "NON PLUS ULTRA", and, on the border, the other inscription "HERCULES FUNDATOR GADIUM DOMINATORQUE". The shield surmounted by a Ducal coronet.

The coat of arms used on the flag is a 19th-century version, as reported by Luis de Igartuburuu (Manual de la Provincia de Cádiz, 1847) and Francisco Piferrer (Trofeo Heroico, 1860). According to the official acts of the municipality, folio 174, 1871, the columns were removed from the arms that year.
The coat of arms features Hercules, the mythic founder of the ancient town of Gades ("Hercules Founder and Ruler of Gades"), in fact a Phoenician colony. Known as Hercules Gaditanus, the god was a Romanized version of the Phoenician god Melkart, protector of the town since its early ages. According to the Greek mythology, Africa and Europe were once connected by an isthmus. By using his enormous powers, Hercules divided Africa and Europe, creating the Strait of Gibraltar. The two columns symbolize mounts Abyla (in Africa, nowadays' Jebel Muza) and Calpe (in Spain, nowadays' Peñon in Gibraltar). The two lions also symbolize the two mountains. As the world was considered as land surrounded by an ocean inhabited by monsters, a motto was placed upon the columns, saying "NON PLUS ULTRA" (Don't move on further), which was changed, probably after 1492, to "PLUS ULTRA" (Even further).
[Símbolos de las Entidades Locales de Andalucía. Cádiz (PDF file); José Antonio Delgado y Orellana. Heráldica Municipal de la Provincia de Cádiz (1969)]

Klaus-Michael Schneider & Ivan Sache, 28 November 2009

Variant of the flag

Flag of Cádiz, variant - Image by José Luis Brugués, 21 September 2005

A flag of Cádiz with the coat of arms in Spanish shape is displayed in front of Hostal Sevillana in Chipiona.

Klaus-Michael Schneider, 28 November 2009

Cádiz (Municipality, Andalusia, Spain)

Presentation of Cádiz

Symbols of Cádiz

Variant of the flag