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Community of Madrid (Autonomous Community, Spain)

Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (CAM)

Last modified: 2020-02-06 by ivan sache
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[Flag]

Flag of the Community of Madrid - Image by Santiago Dotor, 20 November 1998

See also:

Symbols of the Community of Madrid

The flag (photo) and arms of the Community of Madrid , designed by Santiago Amón (memoir), are prescribed in the Law On the Flag, Coat of Arms and Anthem, adopted on 23 December 1983 and promulgated on 19 January 1984 by a Decree of the Government of the Community of Madrid published on 19 May 1984 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 120.

Flag
The flag of the Autonomous Community of Madrid (CAM) is crimson red, with seven five-pointed silver stars, placed four and three in the centre of the field. The red colour stands for Castile and the seven stars stand for the Ursa Major or Plough constellation.

Coat of arms
The coat of arms of Autonomous Community of Madrid (CAM) is "Gules, two castles in fess embattled with turrets and keep or, gate and windows azure, masoned sable, in the chief seven stars placed four and three argent; crest: a Royal crown [follows a long, precise blazon of the Spanish Royal crown].

Red is the colour of the Castilian arms. The seven stars come from the coat of arms of the town of Madrid, but instead of six they have only five points, to represent the five provinces bordering the CAM. The two castles represent the two Castiles (Castilla y León and Castilla-La Mancha) with which the CAM has traditional links. Tradition gives two origins for the seven stars:
(a) they stand close to the bear in the Madrid coat of arms to represent the seven stars of the Plough constellation which stand close to the Ursa Maior (great bear) constellation.
(b) Madrid was the first town in the Muslim Kingdom of Toledo conquered by Alfonso VI and as seat of the alcazar (castle) and of royalty was to be the seat of government, whereas the seven stars in the Plough represent North and hence the government of the heavenly bodies.

The description of the flag was slightly changed in the amended Autonomy Statutes of the Community of Madrid (text), adopted by Constitutional Law No. 8 of 7 July 1998, published on 8 July 1998 in the Spanish official gazette.

Article 4.1. The flag of the Community of Madrid is crimson red, with seven five-pointed white stars, placed four and three in the centre of the field.

Santiago Dotor, Pascal Vagnat, António Martins & Antonio Gutiérrez, 8 October 2007

Flag specifications

[Flag]

Construction sheet for the flag of the Community of Madrid - Image by Santiago Dotor, 20 November 1998

The aforementioned Decree includes a picture of the flag with specifications (no figures are given, however). The picture shows a flag made of 14 x 22 square units; therefore the proportions of the flag are 7:11. Each star is inscribed in an imaginary circle of 3.5 units in diameter. The top ray of the stars of the upper row is at 4 units from the flag's top, and at 5, 9, 13, and 17 units form the flag's hoist, respectively. The top ray of the stars of the bottom row is at 10 units from the flag's top, and at 6, 10, and 14 units form the flag's hoist, respectively.
The colours of the flag are given as:

CIELAB system
Gules	    35.0   70.0   37.0
Argent     255.0    3.0	  78.0

CIE 1931 system
Flag red     9.5  0.164  0.320
Flag silver 53.2  0.303  0.311

Pascal Vagnat, 20 November 1998

Variant of the flag

[Flag]

Variant of the flag of the Community of Madrid - Image by Ivan Sache, 24 April 2016

A variant of the flag (photo, eBay auction) has the stars skewed to the hoist and to the upper part of the flag.

Clayton Horner, 22 April 2016

Flag proposals

The memoir El escudo y la bandera. Memoria y diseño de los símbolos de la Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (online copy) contains the initial designs and proposals made by Santiago Amón:
- a red flag with, at fly, two yellow castles and crown, surrounded by seven white five-pointed stars;
- a red flag with, at fly, seven white five-pointed stars (one in the middle of the other six);
- a red flag with, at fly, a large white five-pointed star.

Santiago Dotor, 26 February 2004

Province of Madrid

[Flag]         [Arms]

Former flag and arms of the Province of Madrid - Images by Eugene Ipavec, 23 December 2010

The Province of Madrid still exists. The former Diputación Provincial (Provincial Council), however, was suppressed in the Autonomous Communities that comprise only one province. Therefore, the only administrative body is now the Autonomous Community of Madrid.

The Province of Madrid used a green flag with the provincial coat of arms in the middle, which ceased to exist when the Autonomous Community was established.

The coat of arms once used by the Provincial Council is presented in the newspaper ABC, 5 December 1983, quoting the book Crónica y guía de la provincia de Madrid (sin Madrid), published in 1966 by Federico Carlos Sainz de Robles.
The first coat of arms, granted in 1872, consisted of a shield divided into eight quarters showing the arms of the eight partidos judiciales (Judicial Districts), superimposed with a central inescutcheon representing the town of Madrid:
1. Alcalá de Henares (a triple-towered castle over waves);
2. Navalcarnero (the Roman aqueduct);
3. San Lorenzo de El Escorial (grill and palm branch);
4. Colmenar Viejo (arms of the Santillana family);
5. Chinchón
6. San Martín de Valdeiglesias (St. Martin cutting and sharing his cloak);
7. Getafe (the world and the words "En España, Xetafe");
8. Torrelaguna (a castle over waves);
Inescutcheon: Madrid "modern" (with a dragon in the first quarter and a wreath in base).

The Madrid Province was subsequently reorganized into only five judicial districts, and a new coat of arms was introduced, with five quarters and a central inescutcheon standing for:
1. Alcalá de Henares (a triple-towered castle over waves);
2. Navalcarnero (an aqueduct);
3. San Lorenzo de El Escorial (per pale a grill and per fess Austria and France modern);
4. Colmenar Viejo (arms of the Santillana-Vega-Luna family);
5. Aranjuez (a palace over waves);
Inescutcheon: Madrid "ancient".

Santiago Dotor & Antonio Gutiérrez, 22 November 1999

Universities

University of Alcalá

UAH (website) caters today some 30,000 students on the Historical Campus, the Scientific-Technological Campus, and the Guadalajara Campus. The UAH is composed of the Faculties of Sciences; Economical, Business and Tourism Sciences; Law; Education; Pharmacy; Philosophy and Letters; Medicine and Health Sciences, of the Higher Technical School and of the School of Architecture. Research is organized in 23 Departments.

The University of Alcalá, founded in 1499 by Regent Cardinal Cisneros, has its roots in the Estudio General approved by King Sancho IV in 1292. Cisneros brand new educational project was based both on traditional (Paris and Salamanca) and innovative (Bologna and Leuven) models of European universities, aimed at educating clerics to reform the church but also competent civil servants to administrate the kingdoms that formed the Crown. The Alcalá's alumni constituted a university aristocracy that fostered the Spanish Golden age.
In the 16th-17th centuries, the University of Alcalá was a center of academic excellence. The list of the prestigious professors and students of the time includes Nebrija, Tomás de Villanueva, Ginés de Sepúlveda, Ignacio de Loyola, Domingo de Soto, Ambrosio de Morales, Arias Montano, Juan de Mariana, Francisco Valles de Covarrubias, Juan de la Cruz, Lope de Vega and Quevedo. The university was used as the model for the new universities established in America by the colonial authorities.

Transferred to Madrid in 1836 as the Central University of Madrid, today the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), the University of Alcalá was re-founded in 1977 in its historical premises as "a new University of Madrid with seat in Alcalá de Henares", authorized by Royal Decree No. 1,502, signed on 10 June 1977 and published on 30 June 1977 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 155, pp. 14,660-14,661 (text).
The new university was renamed to University of Alcalá de Henares in the Statutes approved by Royal Decree No. 1,280, signed on 5 June 1985 and published on 30 July 1985 in the Spanish official gazette No. 181, pp. 24,068-24,084 (text).
The university was allowed to re-adopt its original name, University of Alcalá, by Decree No. 146, issued on 24 October 1996 by the Government of the Community of Madrid and published on 4 November 1996 in the official gazette of the Community of Madrid, No. 263, p. 4 (text). The UAH acronym was kept, however, to prevent confusion with the University of Alicante (UA).

The University and Historic Precinct of Alcalá de Henares was inscribed on 2 December 1998 by UNESCO on the World Heritage List (registration):

Founded by Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros in the early 16th century, Alcalá de Henares was the world's first planned university city. It was the original model for the Civitas Dei (City of God), the ideal urban community which Spanish missionaries brought to the Americas. It also served as a model for universities in Europe and elsewhere."

The symbols of UAH are prescribed in Article 10 of the university's Statutes, approved on 14 May 2003 and amended on 30 October 2003 by the university's Senates and prescribed by Decree No. 221, issued on 23 October 2003 by the Government of the Community of Madrid and published on 31 October 2003 in the official gazette of the Community of Madrid, No. 260, pp. 12-46 (text). The Statutes were last amended in 10 May 2011 by the Senate, which was approved by Decree No. 18 issued on 26 January 2012 by the Government of the Community of Madrid and published on 10 February 2012 in the official gazette of the Community of Madrid, No. 35, pp. 44-70 (text).

1.The coat of arms of UAH is described as follows:
Crest of Cardinal dignity (red galero with 15 tassels of the same color, in five series on each size).
Field: Chequy.BR> Colors: Or and gules. Arranged as follows: Gules in chief, base, and sinister and dexter flanks; or in dexter and sinister cantons of the chief, in the center and in the two cantons of the base.BR> Patriarchal cross flanked by two white swans ["cisnes"] affronty above the crest. Motto: On the crest "Compluti Urbis Universitas" above and "Alcalá de Henares" below.

2. The flag (photo, photo, photo, photo, photo) is pearl gray with the coat of arms in the center.

The coat of arms was already prescribed, in the very same wording, in Article 9 the original Statutes of the university.
The coat of arms, motto excluded, uses the canting arms of the university's founder, Cardinal Cisneros.

Ivan Sache, 14 October 2019

Autonomous University of Madrid

[Flag]         [Arms]

Flag and arms of UAM - Images by Santiago Dotor, 14 March 2002

The symbols of UAM are prescribed in Article 5 of the University's Statutes, approved by Decree No. 214 issued on 16 October 2003 by the Government of the Community of Madrid and published on 29 October 2003 in the official gazette of the Community of Madrid, No. 258 (text), pp. 15-34, and last amended by Decree No. 94 issued on 5 October 2009 by the Government of the Community of Madrid and published on 4 December 2009 in the official gazette of the Community of Madrid, No. 288, pp. 57-66 (text).

1. The university's coat of arms is "Per pale, 1. Gules a torch or three flames argent, 2. Argent a strawberry tree and a bear rampant [all proper]. Crest: a crown bearing eight fleurs de lys or. The escutcheon is surrounded by a wreath of oak leaves, bearing at the bottom a scroll with the motto "Quid ultra faciam?".
2. The university's flag is green with its arms on the centre.

Santiago Dotor, 14 March 2002

Charles III University of Madrid

[Seal]

Seal of UC3M - Image by Santiago Dotor, 2 December 2005

The symbols of UC3M are prescribed in Article 4 of the University's Statutes, approved by Decree No. 1, issued on 9 January 2003 by the Government of the Community of Madrid and published on 20 January 2003 in the official gazette of the Community of Madrid, No. 16 (text), pp. 18-44, and last amended by Decree No. 95, issued on 12 November 2009 by the Government of the Community of Madrid and published on 4 December 2009 in the official gazette of the Community of Madrid, No. 288, pp. 66-77 (text).

1. The university's coat of arms is "A white circle on which appear two opposed, black C letters, which include on top of them the number three in yellow Roman numerals, and in its bottom part the motto "homo hominis sacra res" [indeed, "homo homini sacra res" meaning "man is a sacred thing to man," a quote from Seneca, Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, XCV, 33] in black, all of it surrounded by a blue circular crown [actually a bordure] with the inscription UNIVERSIDAD CARLOS III DE MADRID in yellow."
2. The university's flag is crimson red with its arms on the centre.

Santiago Dotor, 2 December 2005

Complutense University of Madrid

[Flag]

Flag of the UCM - Image by Santiago Dotor, 22 January 2002

UCM is the oldest university of Madrid, originally located at Alcalá de Henares and named for the Latin name of the town, Complutum. The university's coat of arms is based on that of Cardinal Cisneros, who founded the university in 1499. Its history dates back however to 1293, when king Sancho IV of Castile created the Estudio de Escuelas Generales de Alcalá. From 1836 to 1970 it was called Universidad Central.
Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros (1436-1517), a Franciscan monk, served as the Confessor of Queen Isabel the Catholic (1492), the Archbishop of Toledo (1495), the administrador of Castile when the Queen passed away (1504), and the Grand Inquisitor of Castile (1507-1516); he promoted the edition of the multilingual Bible.

The flag of UCM, flown from most university buildings and halls of residence, is crimson red with the coat of arms occupying about half the flag's height.

Santiago Dotor & Ivan Sache, 22 January 2002

Technical University of Madrid

[Flag]         [Arms]

Flag and emblem of UPM - Images by Santiago Dotor, 25 February 2002

UPM was created in 1971 to group all the former engineering and architecture faculties which had existed independently since the 18th century. The flag of the university, frequently used in graduation ceremonies and other events, is light blue with the university's emblem on it.
While the flag does not appear to be officially regulated, the emblem is prescribed in the univerity's Statutes, approved by Royal Decree No. 2,536 signed on 27 December 1985 and published on 22 January 1986 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 19, pp. 3,067-3,089 (text).

The emblem is: "In the centre, on an oval or, a shield azure, in chief a sun in its splendour or, in base an open book argent. Crests a crown or [actually an open royal crown proper] and a white scroll with the inscription "Technica Impendi Nationi" in black lettering. The oval has a white oval with golden lettering, "Universidad Politécnica de Madrid" [actually no "de"].

Santiago Dotor, 25 February 2002

University Alfonso X the Wise

[Flag]

Flag of UAX - Image by Ivan Sache, 21 October 2019

UAX is a private university recognized by Law No. 9 promulgated on 19 April 1993 by King Juan Carlos and published on 20 April 1993 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 94, p. 11,561-11,562 (photo).
UAX is established in Villanueva de la Cañada, 25 km of Madrid, with a secondary campus in Madrid Chamartín and two "delegated centers" in Palma (Balearic Islands) and Las Palmas (Canary Islands).

The flag of the UAX (photo, photo, photo, photo) is white with the university's coat of arms in the center.
The coat of arms is "inscribed within a perfect circle and shall always be kept at 1/1 proportions".
The colors are prescribed as (Manual de Identidad Corporativa):

Blue
CMYK    100 60 0 20
RGB        0 78 145
Pantone 2955

Yellow
CMYK    0 20 100 10
RGB       235 189 0
Pantone 110

Red
CMYK    0 100  6 20
RGB        193 5 58
Pantone 201

Black
CMYK    0  0  0 100
RGB        0  0   0
Pantone Black

The coat of arms is modeled on the seals used by the university's namesake, King Alfonso X the Wise; such seals (photo) are circular, quartered Castile and León by a cross flory, and bordered by a double ornamented ring.

Ivan Sache, 21 October 2019

University Nebrija

[Flag]

Flag of University Nebrija - Image by Ivan Sache, 21 October 2019

Nebrija university (website) is a private university established in 1995, operating two campuses (Madrid and Hoyo de Manzanares). The university is managed by the Antonio de Nebrija Foundation.

The university namesake, Antonio de Nebrija (Antonio Martínez de Cala, 1441-1522) derived his pseudonym from the name of his birth town, Lebrija. He studied Humanities at the University of Salamanca and Philology at the University of Bologna, where he met Italian humanists. He spent most of his academic career at the University of Salamanca, with several breaks. Cardinal Cisneros invited him at the University of Alcalá for the redaction of the Polyglot Bible, a project he withdrew from following arguments with the other translators.
Lebrija struggled for the preservation of classical Latin, which required a perfect knowledge of Romance. He published several treatises, such as Introductiones latinae (Latin Introductions, 1481), Lexicon latino-castellanum et castellano-latinum (Latin-Castilian and Castilian-Latin dictionary, 1492) and Reglas de orthographia en la lengua castellana (Orthographic rules of the Castilian language, 1517). His masterpiece, Gramética castellana (1492), dedicated to Queen Isabel the Catholic, was the first published grammar in a Romance language.

The flag of Nebrija University (photo, photo, photo) is white with the university's emblem, which features a portrait of the university's namesake.
The portrait matches the traditional representation of Nebrija as a humanist scholar, on the seal featured on the frontispiece of his dictionary (image) and his grammar (image).

Ivan Sache, 21 October 2019