Region of Murcia (Autonomous Community, Spain): Municipalities

Last modified: 2016-04-25 by ivan sache
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• Legislation on municipal symbols
• Index of municipalities
• Flags designed by Luis Lisón Hernández

See also:

• Spain
• Region of Murcia (Autonomous Community, Spain)

Legislation on municipal symbols

The symbols of the municipalities in the Region of Murcia are prescribed in Law No. 6 "On the Local Regime of the Region of Murcia", adopted on 25 August 1988 by the Government of the Region of Murcia and published on 3 September 1988 in the official gazette of the Region of Murcia, No. 203, pp. 3,955-3,965 (text), as follows:

Article 20. Municipal symbols.
1. The local entities of the Region of Murcia can adopt a coat of arms or an emblem whose elements are based on historical or geographical characteristics and specificity, in compliance with the norms of heraldry.
2. The municipalities can adopt a distinctive flag, derived from the proper coat of arms and featuring its main elements or dominant colour. The regional flag cannot be used as the background of any municipal flag.
3. The process of adoption or modification of the the coat of arms or the flag shall be as prescribed in Article 18.

Article 18. Name and capital.
1. The name and capital of the municipalities can be changed by a Decree of the Council of Government, upon request of the interested municipality and approval of the Councillor competent in the matter of local regime, of the Royal Academy "Alfonso X the Wise" in Murcia, if for historical reasons, or of the Royal Geographic Society, in other cases, following the official process.
2. The proposed change shall be submitted to the information of the public for one month.
3. The changes in the name and capital of the municipalities shall be inscribed in the Register of Local Entities of the Community, maintained by the Councillor competent in the matter of local regime, and shall be published in the official gazette of the Region of Murcia, without prejudice of the dispositions of Law No. 7 "Regulating the Bases of the Local Regime", adopted on 2 April 1985.

Only 21 out of the 45 municipalities in the Region of Murcia have actually completed the full process of registration of the flag:
- 1986 Ulea
- 1987 Abarán, Los Alcázares, Lorquí, Torre-Pacheco
- 1989 Ojós
- 1990 Cehegín
- 1991 Ceutí
- 1992 Blanca
- 1993 Los Alcázares
- 1999 Abanilla, Archena, Beniel, Mazarrón, Puerto Lumbreras
- 2001 Águilas, Bullas
- 2006 Albudeite, Cieza
- 2009 Calasparra
- 2015 Fuente Álamo de Murcia

For another 4 municipalities, the flag has been approved by the Municipal Council but does not appear to have been validated by the Government of the Region of Murcia:
- 1984 Ricote, San Javier
- 2002 Aledo
- 2009 Fortuna

Yet another 18 municipalities use a flag seemingly not approved by any official body: Alcantarilla, Alhama de Murcia, Caravaca de la Cruz, Cartagena, Jumilla, La Unión, Librilla, Lorca, Molina de Segura, Moratalla, Mula, Murcia, Pliego, San Pedro del Pinatar, Santomera, Totana, Villanueva del Segura, and Yecla.
There is no information on the flag of the last two municipalities, Campos del Río and Las Torres de Cotillas.

Ivan Sache, 18 April 2015

Index of municipalities

Flags designed by Luis Lisón Hernández

Several municipal symbols in the Region of Murcia were designed by the historian and heraldist Luis Lisón Hernández (biography; personal website), born in 1943 in Alguazas.
Luis Lisón Hernández published more than 20 books and 400 articles on local history, with a special emphasis on the Ricote valley, Alguazas, La Alberca de las Torres and Sucina, and on water cures in the Region of Murcia (Los aprovechamientos termales en Archena, 2003). He is the Official Chronicler of the towns of Alguazas (2003) and Ojós (2004).

Lisón graduated in 1992 at the Madrid School of Genealogy, Heraldry and Nobility Law. He published in 1999 Símbolos municipales de la Región de Murcia and drafted some 20 proposals of municipal symbols in the Region of Murcia and the Province of Alicante: flags of Abarán, Albudeite, Alguazas, Blanca, Bullas, Ceutí, Ojós, Pilar de la Horadada, Pliego, Ricote and Ulea (municipalities) and of Llano de Brujas, El Raal and Sucina (submunicipal entities); coats of arms of Albudeite, Alguazas, Blanca, Ceutí, Ojós, Pilar de la Horadada and Pliego (municipalities) and of La Alberca de las Torres, Gea y Truyols, Guadalupe de Maciascoque, Llano de Brujas, El Raal and Sucina (submunicipal entities).

Luis Lisón Hernández' personal flag - Image by Luis Lisón Hernández, 18 April 2015

Luis Lisón Hernández designed in 2008 his personal flag (presentation), blue with a yellow "L"-shaped stripe and three yellow fleurs-de-lis placed horizontally, the central smaller.
The flag is derived from the coat of arms of the Lisón lineage, "Azure three fleurs-de-lis yellow per pale". The flag features a blue "L", for "Luis", a yellow "L" for "Lisón", and a "H" made by the fleurs-de-lys, for "Hernández".

Ivan Sache, 18 April 2015