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Torre Cardela (Municipality, Andalusia, Spain)

Flag of Torre Cardela - Image from the Símbolos de Granada website, 21 May 2014

Presentation of Torre Cardela
Symbols of Torre Cardela

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Presentation of Torre Cardela

The municipality of Torre Cardela (also written Torre-Cardela and Torrecardela; 860 inhabitants in 2014; 1,519 ha; municipal website) is located 70 km north of Granada.

Torre Cardela is named, according to Madoz, for the tower (torreón) that watched the pass connecting Guadix to Guadahortuna and Huelma. The site of the Cerro de Los Molinos (The Mills' Hills) was already settled in the Age of Bronze, as evidenced by the excavtions performed in the 1960s by Fedrico Molina Fajardo. Tools, pottery remains and an idol are shown in the Provincial Museum of Archeology in Granada. Located on the border between the Kingdoms of Granada and Jaén, the tower was fiercely disputed during the Christian reconquest. Madoz reports that the town was seized in 1412 by the Marquis of Cádiz, mistaking Torre Cardela for La Cardela, another fortified town located 3 km west of Ubrique, in the Province of Cádiz. Torre Cardela was most probably reconquerred in 1472/1477.
Torre Cardela was subsequently ruled by the Girón family, but the exact date of the grant is unknown - most probably, short after the fall of Granada (1492). The Girón would rule it until the suppression of the feudal system. The town was resettled by Christians from northern Spain. The Floridablanca census (1787) gives a population of 561 for the village.
After the Civl War, the population of Torre Cardela increased up to 2,179 in 1960. Emigration ot the industrialized regions (Madrid, Catalonia, Basque Country) decreased the pooulation to 1,240 in 1991.

Ivan Sache, 21 May 2014

Symbols of Torre Cardela

The flag (photo) and arms of Torre Cardela, adopted on 3 July 2002 by the Municipal Council and validated on 6 February 2003 by the Royal Academy of Córdoba, are prescribed by Decree No. 106, adopted on 15 April 2003 by the Government of Andalusia and published on 7 May 2003 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 85, p. 9,566 (text). This was confirmed by a Decree adopted on 30 November 2004 by the Directorate General of the Local Administration and published on 20 December 2004 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 246, pp. 28,986-29,002 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 2:3, vertically divided into two parts, the part at hoist, red, in length half the part at fly, which is yellow. The latter stripe charged in the center with the municipal coat of arms.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Or a tower gules, 2. Or three gyrons gules a bordure checky or and gules of three orders. The shield surmounted by a Royal Spanish crown closed.

The symbols are explained in the Preamble of the Decree as follows.
Since there is no sigillographical record in Torre-Cardela, the coat of arms was designed from scratch. The first quarter features the most characteristic monument of Torre Cardela, the tower, whose ruins still stand east of the village. Quite common in Spanish heraldry, the tower had to be complemented with another charge for the sake of differentiation. Accordingly, the second quarter features the (canting) arms of the Girón, Dukes of Osuna, who were granted the village probably after the fall of Granada, although the exact date of the grant is unknown. For the sake of esthetics, the flag was vertically divided, using for colours the tinctures of the coat of arms.

The memoir supporting the symbols, dated 10 March 2002, was redacted by Carlos Navarro Gazapo, associate member of the Royal Academy "Matritense" of Heraldry and Genealogy (text).
Three proposals were made for the flag:
- No. 1. Rectangular, in proportions 2:3, yellow with two red wavy horizontal stripes. Charged in the center with the crowned coat of arms of Torre Cardela.
- No. 2. Rectangular, in proportions 2:3, yellow with a red saltire. Charged in the center with the crowned coat of arms of Torre Cardela.
- No. 3. As eventually adopted by the Municipal Council.
Three proposals featuring the same charges were made for the coat of arms:
- No. 1. "Per pale, 1. Or a tower gules, 2. Or three gyrons gules a bordure checky or and gules of three orders. The shield surmunted by a Royal crown or." This design, presented as "the more traditional", was eventually selected by the Municipal Council.
- No. 2. "Per fess, 1. Or a tower gules, 2. Or three gyrons gules a bordure checky or and gules of three orders. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown or."
- No. 3. "Or a tower gules ensigned with a flag charged with three gyrons gules and a bordure checky or and gules of three orders. The shield surmunted by a Royal crown or."

Ivan Sache & Klaus-Michael Schneider, 21 May 2014