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Provincial, Island and Municipal Flags (Canary Islands, Spain)

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Flags of the Canary Islands by José Manuel Erbez

About Canarian Municipal Flags

I do not know the ratio of most flags. The ratio of the Canary-flag (w-b-y) seems to be 2:3, that of Tenerife and some municipality flags 3:5. There might also be flags with a ratio of 1:2; e.g. La Orotava. There are three main sources:

Older indoor flags, probably ceremonial flags, which I could photograph in the Military Museum of Sta. Cruz de Tenerife. I compared the colours of the escudos de armas (CoA) with their images in publications of the municipalities and the colours from outdoor flags. I tried to "translate" some of the indoor colours into outdoor colours. So indoor purple became outdoor light blue and indoor gold became outdoor yellow.
Outdoor flags, spotted best at the townhalls.
Heraldica Institucional de Canarias: a book without ISBN-code, without authors and perhaps made especially for municipalities and other authorities. Mr. Gabriel Perez from the municipality of La Victoria de Acentejo let me take some looks into the local exemplar. Most of the new flags are from this source. I'll describe some flags only as "A white flag with the CoA in its centre." If there is no description of the CoA, I'll send a bigger image, on which you can see the details better.

Although in every CoA the Spanish source says "above all the royal crown," I use the term crown only for closed crowns with bows; for all others leafy or elsewhere open ones I use the term coronet. This is not quite correct, because this distinction was, as far as I know, introduced by Carlos I about 1560 and at least one CoA is definitely older.

Sometimes the official description doesn't match the CoAs in use. In these cases I'll depict the form in us.

I'll give the call-name of the municipalities first. That's the name that appears on road maps, travel guides, traffic signs and so on. I add the full name, if I know it. Spanish municipalities use to have very long official names adding several titles granted by the crown. In a few cases I'll send only a photo from a CoA. I'll have to translate some descriptions of CoAs from Spanish. Though being beginner, I think I can do for the language of heraldry seems to be more or less the same in all European languages. Nevertheless, if the genuine text is wanted, let me know. Start of contribution will probably be at the end of this week.

It seems, that there has been a time, when most of the island's municipalities used a plain white cloth with an "escudo de armas" (coat of arms) in its centre. I could see some of these flags on 30 January 2007 in the military museum in Sta. Cruz de Tenerife; the friendly crew unfurled all the municipality flags they had.

Address: Museo Histórico Militar de Canarias; Cuartel de Almeida C/ San Isidro 2; 38001 Santa Cruz (unfortunately no website)

Those municipalities were: Adeje, Arafo, Arico, Arona, Candelaria, El Tanque, Fasnia, Garachico, Guía de Isora, Güimar, Icod de los Vinos, La Orotava, Puerto de la Cruz, San Miguel de Abona, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Santiago del Teide, El Sauzal and Tacoronte.

Some of those do so even today. Here is the list of those I am sure of, because I spotted them: Candelaria, La Orotava, Puerto de la Cruz and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Many of the not-so-important municipalities have been granted coloured flags probably without a coat of arms. Small images of the patterns without coat of arms can be seen in "Heraldica Institucional de Canarias" (called by me HIdC). R. Gabriel Perez from the municipality of La Victoria de Acentejo let me gave me some time to look intAll the "new" flags are painted according to the versions depicted in HIdC. I can not claim for sure, but according to HIdC there has been a decree of the President of Canary islands Council, issued 3 December 1991 (Otorgamiento de Bandera: Consejería de Presidencia del Gobierno de Canarias. Orden de 3 de diciembre de 1991 (BOC de 13/01/1992). [BOC is the abbreviation for "Boletín Oficial de Canarias."])

Those municipalities are: Arona, Buenavista del Norte, Fasnia, Granadilla de Abona, Garachico, Guía de Isora, Icod de los Vinos, La Guancha, San Miguel de Abona, Santiago del Teide. I have however only two proofs of flags that are used in that form depicted in HIdC, those are Garachico (image by Santiago Dotor) and San Miguel de Abona (photo from town hall on leaflet of the local tourist board, for further information go to www.sanmigueldeabona.org). I believe that it is the same with Santiago del Teide, because the new flag cannot be used reasonably with a coat of arms in its centre.

Some of the above named municipalities use the pattern depicted in HIdC but they add the coat of arms. Some of these are: La Guancha, Granadilla and Icod de los Vinos.

Some municipalities have coloured flags with the coat of arms, but I don't know any details.

Klaus-Michael Schneider, 11 Apr 2007

visiting Tenerife, I realized that some municipalities are using flags not matching the official pattern according to BOC – respectively, there is permission to vary the official patterns.

Klaus-Michael Schneider, 18 May 2009