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Municipality of Otura (Granada Province, Andalusia, Spain)

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image by Wikipedia User:Oturalbo, 22 Jul 2009

Introduction
Description

See also:

Introduction

The municipality of Otura (5,883 inhabitants in 2007; 2,400 ha) is located 10 km south of Granada. Otura is on the southern limit of the territory known as "La Campana," on which the sound of the bell (in Spanish, "campana") of the Watch Tower of the Alhambra of Granada can be heard.

After the reconquest of Granada, the Catholic Kings granted Otura to Muhammed el Mulleh, a Nasrid diplomat who had negotiated the surrender of Granada. Shortly after, King Fernando transferred the domain to the Royal convent of Santa Cruz, which retroceded it to the king a few years later.

Source: Granada Tourism website

Otura proudly presents itself as the place of one of the most famous episodes of the Christian reconquest, the Moor's Last Sigh. After the fall of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, the last king, Boabdil, left the town with his court; when reaching the Pass of the Moor's Sigh, located at 860 m asl, south of Otura, Boabdil looked back to his cherished birth town and could not held back a loud sigh. His fiery mother told him: "Now you weep like a woman over what you could not defend as a man." The event was popularized by the romantic writers in the 19th century. François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) described the Moor's Last Sigh in his novel "Aventures du dernier Abencérage" (1828). More recently, Salman Rushdie published a novel called "The Moor's Last Sigh" (1996), including a recurrent evocation of the event. The Spanish historians and the tradition picture Boabdil, "The Child," as a coward, but the historical reality is different; he carried on the struggle against the Christians in Morocco until killed in a battle, years later, aged 71.

Ivan Sache, 22 Jul 2009

Description

The flag and arms of Otura were approved by the Municipal Council on 31 May 2005 and submitted on 2 June 2005 to the General Directorate of Local Administration, which confirmed them by Decree on 20 June 2005, published in the Andalusian official gazette (Boletín Oficial de la Junta de Andalucía, BOJA) No. 128 on 4 July 2005.

The relevant parts of the Decree are the following:

Coat of arms: Spanish shield: Quarterly per cross: 1. Or a bridge sable masoned argent on waves azure and argent; 2. Vert a tower or. 3. Vert, a wheat spike and a tobacco leaf or, all or (sic) crossed per saltire. 4. Or the bust of King Boabdil, shedding three tears, all proper. Grafted in base azure a pomegranate or faceted gules. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown open.

Flag: Panel in proportions 2/3 in hoist and length, respectively. Divided in five horizontal parallel (sic) stripes with the following proportions: 1/8, 1/8, 1/4, 1/8 and 1/8, with colours blue-white-green- white-blue, respectively; in the central stripe at hoist, a circle made of eight white tears.

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 appended to the Decree).

Source: BOJA No. 128, p. 35, 04 Jul 2005

This is the only flag in the world showing tears I am aware of (but I won't cry if I am proved wrong).

Ivan Sache, 22 Jul 2009