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Parishes (Andorra)

Parròquias

Introduction
Parishes:

See also:

Andorra

Other sites:

CIA World Factbook: Andorra

Introduction

Richard Foster's message [stating that the supposedly mistaken Andorran arms with blue cows on a green field is actually the arms of Canillo parish] seems to suggest that if parish flags do exist, then they are Andorran flags with the parish coat-of-arms in the place of the Andorran one, which is consistent with previous observations.

Jorge Candeias, 12 Sep 2002

Well guessed, Jorge – but Canillo appears not to have a coat of arms, at least according to Ralf Hartemink's website. Where did Richard get the impression that the blue cows on a green field was the arms of the parish of Canillo?

Santiago Dotor, 05 Jan, 2006

I've seen all the Andorran communal emblems and flags, and no one is similar to the state coat of arms. Canillo has an emblem, not a coat of arms. You can see them all here. On the other hand, all communal flags, with exception of that of Andorra la Vella, are the state colours with communal emblem in the centre instead the state coat of arms. Andorra la Vella's flag is banner of arms of communal arms. You can see this one at vexilla-mundi.com.

Valentin Poposki, 05 Jan, 2006

This very small Catalonian-speaking mountain country, landlocked between Spain and and France, is divided in seven parishes, and each of these has an emblem (without graphical homogenity, alas!). There is thin evidence that those emblems on a national flag background (blue, yellow, and red vertical tricolor) are maybe used as parish flags. At the Catalan Wikipedia, the seven parishes of Andorra are listed. At an official website (?), there is a map showing the parish boundaries and links to parish pages, each showing its emblem. Wikimedia Commons has also good-quality renderings of these emblems.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 26 Jul 2009

Well, that's a bit too thin in my not so humble opinion. Even if we would accept the possibility of a flag of this pattern for Andorra la Vella, that wouldn't mean that all the other parishes would use the same pattern. So, without further evidence, I call these images by Antonio pure speculation.

A quick (and certainly not comprehensive) image search done by me did not turn up any Andorran municipal flags used in a few of the expected contexts, only the national flag:

1. Town halls:

1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6

2. Municipal council sessions (or other official occasions):

7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12

3. Mayors:

13 , 14 , 15

BTW, a few of the photographs of municipal councils show photos of the two heads-of-state of Andorra in the background: the French president (with the French and EU flag) and the bishop of Urgell (with the Andorran flag), e.g. here.

Marcus Schmöger, 27 Jul 2009

When the Tour de France passed through Andorra, I noticed several flags beside the road which looked like "variations on a theme" of the Andorran national flag, but with so many flags on the tour which could be reported and such fleeting views of most of them I didn't think to take down notes. I'm not saying they were parish flags, they may well have simply been hand-made or poorly-made national Andorran flags seen too quickly to know what was on the central stripe.

James Dignan, 28 Jul 2009

Concerning these flag designs, and apart from what was already pointed out by Marcus – that there is scarce and unclear evidence for one of them and that the conjecture that other six like it may exist is not supported by observations – I should mention that when I made these images I overlooked the fact that the Andorran flag has a wider central stripe, and thus these images should match that spec of 7+8+7.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 31 Jul 2009

Canillo Parish

image by Santiago Dotor and António Martins-Tuválkin, 31 Jul 2009
N.B.: reconstructed image, no original seen

Emblem

image by Santiago Dotor, 09 Jan 2006

Canillo definitely does not have a coat-of-arms, only an oval logo, according to an e-mail received today from Ms Gisela Jané, Coordinator of Agriculture, Environment and Tourism, Comú de la Parròquia de Canillo.

Santiago Dotor, 09 Jan 2006

A non-heraldic emblem with the map of Andorra in grey on a buff oval, and with the territory of Canillo parish highlighted in brown; two laurels with stems crossed at the bottom (inside the oval), and the local church of Sant Joan de Caselles peeking from behind the map.

Seen at the principality's official website and the parochial one, at the latter also in monochrome. A good image (different in details from the one above) is also at the Catalan Wikipedia.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 31 Jul 2009

Encamp Parish

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 26 Jul 2009
N.B.: reconstructed image, no original seen

This is probably a CoA, and looks like one: on a lozenge shield (Catalan-style) Azure between a naturalistic mountain Argent a pair of keys Or per fess a fess Purpure (color on color!). Above the shield (as a crest?), five five-pointed stars per chevron, the central one larger. (The stars above the shield are usually yellow. I tentatively changed them to purple, for contrast. Confirmation needed!)

António Martins-Tuválkin, 26 Jul 2009

Ordino Parish

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 26 Jul 2009
N.B.: reconstructed image, no original seen

The shield is samnitic and arms could be blazoned, but it seems too hard for me. There is a yellow chevron over all, tip touching the top, dividing two upper triangular areas, showing each a light grey triangle on blue, again tip touching the top, and a lower red area, itself with a smaller triangle are at the bottom tip of the shield (a pile diminute?) On the chevron a red fir outline, at dexter a red church with blue windows and roof, and at sinister a red cow with blue collar; on the red area an open book, at dexter a 6-petal white flower, and at sinister a thingy; on the bottom blue triangle a waterfall. Shield with golden cartouche reading on its top panel above the shield "Comú d'Ordino," and flanked by two fronds of some plant, its stem bases crossing in saltire below the shield.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 26 Jul 2009

Andorra la Vella Parish

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 30 Jul 2009
image by Sophie Rault, 17 Sep 2003
image by Mello Luchtenberg, 30 Jul 2009

N.B.: reconstructed images, no original seen

In a tourist prospectus about Andorra, I saw a picture showing a conference room, shot from the last rows, with a flag on the stage. The flag was a blue-yellow-red tricolour, but the coat-of-arms had a blue field with something white around [a cartouche?] and undistinguishable charges, perhaps green-coloured. Unfortunately, the flag in the picture was too small to get any more details than this. Here is a scan. Maybe this is an Andorran subnational flag?

Jorge Candeias, 16 Apr 2002

The arms might be that of Andorra la Vella, the Andorran capital, as shown in this webpage.

Santiago Dotor, 25 Jan 2005

We report something that might be a parish flag, maybe improvised and/or one-off, but unmistakably a photo of a blue-yellow-red tricolor with a CoA on the central panel that is definitely neither version of the national arms and looks very much like the older version of the communal/parochial arms of Andorra la Vella, mainly blue.

The parochial arms of Andorra la Vella as used currently seem to include only an oval shield with open golden crown with 5 stems and gems, as in this Wikimedia image, while a previously used depiction included a green scroll or decoration ribbon, a wreath of two different branches and wide edging around the shield, which can be taken either as a bordure or as an ornament of the shield. At the principality's official website, I found a single web usage of this older depiction, which seems to be the one shown on the mystery non-national tricolor.

On both depictions the arms are Vert three pales wavy Azure (which goes against the rule of tinctures?)

The parish administration of Andorra la Vella (Comú d'Andorra la Vella) uses a logo showing a stylized version of the CoA (recognizably of is former depiction), reduced to a single pale, with conspicuous bordure/edging, oval shield with a point at the bottom, and simplified crown. This logo is geometrically made up of solid shapes placed nearby, its gaps in stencil-style. The single pale on the shield field is thus made of three shapes, separated by two wavy gaps.

This logo (visible in single-color use on the façade of the parochial government facilities as shown in the two photos found by Marcus Schmöger) can be also used officially in color: golden, green and blue, as in a ~2:3 white flag with this logo centered on it (taking slightly over the flags's height).

A banner of these stylized arms (Vert a pale wavy Azure and a bordure Or) is shown on Mello Luchtenberg's Vexilla Mundi website, with no source (direct image link). This depiction includes a white fimbriation around the inside of the bordure and golden fimbriation separating the pale from the background, which seems to be a poor interpretation of the stylized arms. Mello, where does this come from?

António Martins-Tuválkin, 30 Jul 2009

[The white flag with logo centered] was proposed on September 17, 2003 by an eminent heraldist, HE Malta's Ambassador to The Hague Adrian Strickland (with the Andorra la Vella COA researched by NAVA Member Sophie Rault) to his colleague HE Meritxell Mateu, Ambassador of Andorra to the Netherlands, who in turn will direct proposal into the proper Andorran channels. The flag is in the same 2:3 proportions as the Andorran national flag.

Peter Orenski, 30 Sep 2003

La Massana Parish

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 30 Jul 2009
N.B.: reconstructed image, no original seen

At the official website (image here), the parochial CoA is shown as a samnitic shield with thin red edging (not a heraldic bordure, or is it?), yellow scroll above reading "La Massana," and wreath of two branches with yellow leaves. The blazon is party per pale the I Or three pales wavy Azure and the II chequy Gules and Or.

An image at the official parochial website shows green leaves in the wreath, white scroll, and green (not yellow) background of the Ist of the shield, (at the official parochial website I found only a small depiction of this, embedded in a Flash animation; you can see also a logo used by the parish administration, orange with a white mountain outline doubling for an "M.")

The Ist partition of the shield is possibly taken from the arms of Andorra la Vella.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 30 Jul 2009

Sant Julià de Lòria Parish

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 30 Jul 2009
N.B.: reconstructed image, no original seen

At the official website (image here), and in many other (surely secondary) sources, the parochial CoA is shown as an oval shield Or four pallets Gules, two branches with green leaves crossed and the base of the shield and tied with a ribbon striped in the national colors (matching the horizontal version of the flag).

António Martins-Tuválkin, 30 Jul 2009

Escaldes-Engordany Parish

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 30 Jul 2009
image by Wikipedia User:Willtron and António Martins-Tuválkin, 31 Jul 2009

N.B.: reconstructed images, no original seen

At the official website (image here), the parochial emblem is a seal-like logo. The seal shows the local stone bridge and mineral spring fountain (canting for "les Escaldes," "the boiling [ones/waters]"), stylized, within a wreath of two different branches (laurel and wheat?) This on a white circular background and around it the lettering "Comú d'Escaldes-Engordany" above and "Andorra" below, separated by dots and set in black sans-serif capitals.

In spite of the official usage mentioned above, a simpler depiction of this logo, lacking the background and lettered rim, seems to be in use (Wikipedia image).

António Martins-Tuválkin, 30 and 31 Jul 2009