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Havana (Havana, Cuba)

Ciudad de la Habana

image from wikipedia

Overview
Coat of Arms

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Overview

Flag and Coat of Arms of Ciudad de la Habana are at wikipedia.
Felipe Casrillo, 25 March 2008

The Heralatin website (original source for the Coat of Arms) gives a description of the coat of arms, in Spanish, which I am summarizing below.
According to research made in the 1930s by Dr. Ezequiel García Enseñat, the coat of arms of Habana appeared in the first third of the XVIIth century. The oldest written description of the arms is a request submitted in 1665 by the Governnor and Captain General of the island, Don Francisca Dávila Orejón Gastón, to the King for the official grant of the arms used "desde tiempo inmemorial" (from time immemorial). The document is kept in the archives of the municipal museum of Habana.
Queen Regent Mariann of Austria confirmed the arms of Habana by Letters Patented on 30 November 1665, which do not prescribe the charges of the arms with precision. The arms of Habana were eventually fixed in 1938 as follows: "Usa de azur; tres castillos de plata alineados en faja, cada uno almenado de cuatro merlones y donjonado (torreado) de una torre de homenaje almenada de tres merlones; el todo mazonado, y aclarado de sable. Debajo, una llave de oro en la misma posición, con el anillo a diestra y el paletón hacia abajo. Al timbre, corona mural de oro, formada por un círculo murado con cuatro puertas (solo visible una al centro y media en cada extremidad) y cuatro aspilleras (dos visibles); y en un cuerpo superior, separado por un cordón, ocho torres almenadas (cuatro visibles) unidas por lienzos de muralla almenada. Como ornamento exterio, dos ramos de encina al natural, una a diestra y otra a siniestra del escudo, cruzado bajo la punta y atados de azur." [Azure three castles argent placed per fess [...] masoned and open sable a key or [...]. The shield surmonted by a mural crown or [...] External ornament, two branches of oak proper surrounding the shield and tied below by a ribbon azure].
The Town of Havana became a Province in 1976. The provincial arms were prescribed in the Regulations issued by the Provincial Government in 1997.
The International Civic Heraldry website, quoting Secundino Fernandez, adds that the three castles represent the three old fortresses of Havana (Fuerza, Morro and Punta); the key alludes to the strategic location of the town on the Gulf of Mexico, symbolized by the blue background.
Ivan Sache, 17 July 2007

Coat of Arms

image from wikipedia