Last modified: 2009-01-10 by eugene ipavec
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The municipality of Navas de San Juan (5,083 inhabitants - Naveros - in 2005; 175 sq. km) is located north-east of the town of Jaén, in the Province of Jaén, Andalusia.
Ivan Sache, 23 Mar 2008
As reported by José A. García Márquez on 15 March 2008, the municipal administration has launched a contest for an official municipal flag, and has received 12 proposals. In a further step, a jury composed of members of the different political groups represented in the municipal council, of historians and of experts in culture, will select three proposals to be submitted to the citizens' choice. The next step shall be official validation of the flag design by the Government of Andalusia.
Six of the 12 proposals include the municipal coat of arms, quartered and with the writing in black letters "Ad Morum de los Vasos Apolinares", referring to the Roman origin of the village. Two proposals include in the middle of the flag a big star, recalling the patron saint of the village, the Blessed Virgin of the Star ("Virgen de la Estrella"). Three proposals include the olive, the main component of the local economy, and another one an oak, representing the natural environment of the village.
Some proposals use the olive green colour, other the purple colour of ripe olives, and other the golden yellow colour of olives [olives have indeed a large range of colours, depending on the variety and the maturation process]. Some proposals also use the red colour as the symbol of the iron-bearing soil, the white colour as the symbol of peace, democracy and of the whitewashed houses, and light blue to represent the three rivers that water the village.
Source: www.ideal.es
Ivan Sache, 23 Mar 2008
The municipal coat of arms of Navas de San Juan is shown on an unofficial website, with the writing in blue and not black as said in the aforementioned article. The coat of arms is
Quarterly, 1. Gules a tower argent, 2. Argent a lion of the same fimbriated gules, 3. Or a dragon (?) vert, 4. Gules a crescent argent surmonted by a cross and a bezant or.
The meaning of the writing "Ad Morum de los Vasos Apolinares" is explained on the same website.
The "Vasos Apolinares", known in English as the "Vicarello Vases", "Vicarello Traveling Cups" or "Vicarello goblets" are four silver goblets found in 1852 and 1863 when revamping the spa of Vicarello, located on Lake Bracciano, north-west of Roma. There was already a Roman spa there, named Aquae Appolinaris. The goblets, shaped like a cylindric milliary column, were probably given / sold to rich water takers as souvenirs. The Vicarello Vases are engraved with the itinerary of the Via Augusta and the Via Domitia, linking Cádiz to Roma, listing all the posts and the distances between them. The engineer Eduardo Saavedra (1829-1912) has reconstituted the Spanish part of the itinerary and has attempted to match the Roman place names with modern places. Accordingly, "Ad Morum" was located 500 feet north of Navas de San Juan, with a post where 20 horses could be changed. The place is locally known as Camino de Aníbal or "Hannibal's Way," but there does not seem to be evidence that Hannibal and his elephants crossed it.
Source: http://usuarios.lycos.es/NAVASDESANJUAN/
Ivan Sache, 23 Mar 2008