^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

City of Cádiz (Andalusia, Spain)

Cádiz Province

image by José Luis Cepero, 21 Sep 2005; modified by Eugene Ipavec

Description
Erroneous Version

See also:

Description

The FOTW website is quite inconclusive on the flag of Cádiz. A recent Decree prescribing the municipal symbols should solve the problem.

The flag and arms of Cádiz were approved by the Provincial Council and submitted on 2 December 2008 to the General Directorate of Local Administration, which confirmed them by Decree on 12 January 2009, published in the Andalusian official gazette (Boletín Oficial de la Junta de Andalucía, BOJA) No. 15 on 23 January 2009.

The relevant parts of the Decree are the following:

Coat of arms: In the middle Hercules clad with a lion's fur flanked by two other lions he holds by the mane, a column on each side bearing the writing: "Non plus ultra," and, on the border, the other inscription "Hercules Fundator Gadium Dominatorque." The shield surmounted by a Duke's cap. Flag: Rectangular, crimson red, with the municipal coat of arms in the middle.

The symbols should be registered on the Andalusian Register of Local Entities, with their official written description and graphics (as originally submitted, but unfortunately not apprended to the Decree.

Source: BOJA, No. 15, p. 66, 23 Jan 2009

The arms recall that Hercules is the mythic founder of the antique town of Gades ("Hercules Founder et Ruler of Gades"), indeed a Phoenician colony. The Pillars (in Latin, the "Columnae," lit. "Columns") of Hercules were the promontories flanking the Strait of Gibraltar, then the limit of the "known" world, therefore the motto, "No more Beyond" (to be compared with "Plus Ultra" on the cognate Spanish coat of arms).

Ivan Sache, 28 Jun 2009

Erroneous Version

image by José Luis Brugués

José Luis Cepero sent the flag of Cádiz to the Vexillum list, showing a differently shaped coat-of-arms then the FOTW version drawn by José Luis Brugués. I asked him and Antonio Gutiérrez (who is currently researching and drawing the flags of all Spanish provincial capitals), and he sent a photo that shows an actual flag with the arms in oval shape. However, both Brugués' image in FOTW and Cepero's [original uncorrected rendition] are wrong as respects the field colour, which should be dark red rather than purple.

Santiago Dotor, 21 Sep 2005

I believe the field should be red, as the origin is the register flag of the Maritime Province of Cadiz, a completely red flag.

Jose C. Alegria, 21 Sep 2005