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Castellar de Santiago (Municipality, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain)

Flag of Castellar de Santiago - Image by Ivan Sache, 30 May 2019

Presentation of Castellar de Santiago
Symbols of Castellar de Santiago
- Flag proposals

See also:

Presentation of Castellar de Santiago

The municipality of Castellar de Santiago (1,918 inhabitants in 2018; 9,550 ha; municipal website) is located on the border with Andalusia (Province of Jaén), 100 km south-east of Ciudad Real and 30 km south of Valdepeñas.

Castellar de Santiago is named for a watch or defense tower (castillete) erected on the Castellón hill in the 13th century. The village that emerged nearby was subsequently relocated downhill in a place known as Mata de Mencaliz and named Castellar de la Mata de Mencaliz. In the aftermath of the Christian reconquest, Castellar was incorporated to the Campo de Montiel, an area assigned to the Order of Saint James but disputed by other military orders.
In the 15th-16th centuries, the village thrived following the re-settlement managed by the Order of Saint James and thanks to the presence of the Cañada Real Conquense, a transhumance route that connected Andalusia with the Cuenca mountains and the Mediterranean Sea.
Castellar de Santiago was granted the status of villa on 14 September 1564 by Philip II, separating from Torre de Juan Abad.

Ivan Sache, 30 May 2019

Symbols of Castellar de Santiago

The flag of Castellar de Santiago is prescribed by Order No. 139, issued on 18 September 2018 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on 27 September 2018 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 190, p. 25,450 (text).
The flag is described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular, vertically divided into two equal parts. At hoist, sand yellow charged with a garnet red Cross of St. James, at fly, olive green charged with a sand yellow castle with olive green ports and windows.

The coat of arms of Castellar de Santiago is prescribed by an Order issued on 12 September 1990 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on 21 September 1990 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 68, p. 2,756 (text)).
The coat of arms is described as follows:

Coat of arms: In Spanish shape. Per pale, 1. Argent a Cross of St. James gules, 2. Azure a three-towered castle azure. A bordure gules. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed..

The arms were proposed on 11 July 1984 by Ramón José Maldonado y Cocat, who had been commissioned on 18 June 1984 to design them.
[Ramón José Maldonado y Cocat. 1984. La bandera regional y nuevas armas municipales de la provincia de Ciudad Real. Cuadernos de estudios manchegos 15, 303-337]

The Royal Academy of History considered the proposed coat of arms, "Per pale, 1. Argent a Cross of St. James gules, 2. Azure a three-towered castle or port and windows azure on a base vert. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed", as "discrete", featuring the past of the town, which once belonged to the Military Order of St. James, and the fortified castle once seized by the Christians after the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. The proposed bordure features eight castles, as the arms of Castile, the kingdom to which the Province of Ciudad Real once belonged. The Academy stated that these charges could be suppressed for the sake of simplicity recommended for such coats of arms - this being repeated one more time -, and because, for the same reason, they could represent any other municipality in the historical Province of Ciudad Real.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 182:3, 577. 1985]

While the legal description omits the charges in the bordure and the base vert, the coat of arms in use matches the proposed design, with a red scroll beneath the shield, inscribed with the name of the municipality in black letters.

Ivan Sache, 27 May 2019

Flag proposals

Rejected proposals - Images by Ivan Sache, 30 May 2019

The flag was selected in a public contest organized from 21 February to 18 May 2017, among four designs proposed by the Sociedad Española de Vexilología:
- proposal No. 1 (11% of the 600 votes): Quartered garnet red-sand yellow, the second quarter charged with a yellow castle and the third quarter charged with a garnet red Cross of St. James;
- proposal No. 2 (9% of the 600 votes): Vertically divided sand yellow-garnet red, the first half charged with a garnet red Cross of St. James;
- proposal No. 3 (48% of the 600 votes): Vertically divided sand yellow-olive green, the first half charged with a garnet red Cross of St. James, the second half charged with a sand yellow castle;
- proposal No. 4 (30% of the 600 votes): Vertically divided garnet red-olive green, the first half charged with a yellow castle, the second half charged with a garnet red Cross of St. James./P>

Ivan Sache, 27 May 2019