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Municipality of Gelves (Seville Province, Andalusia, Spain)

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image by Ivan Sache, 07 Jul 2009
N.B.: reconstructed image, no original seen

Introduction
Description

See also:

Introduction

The municipality of Gelves (8,828 inhabitants in 2008; 818 ha) is located 6 km south of Seville.

There is no consensus on the etymology of Gelves. The archeologist Rodrigo Caro believes that the town was mentioned by Pliny as "Juli Genius." José María de Mena believes that the ancient name of the town was "Gelduba," the "-uba" suffix being of Celtiberic origin. Cesar Bermúdez prefers "Geldaba," considered by Serrano Ortega as a bastardization of "Gelduba" in the Moorish times, via the Arabic "Gebal," "Pleasure Mount;" Vicente García de Diego corrected the translation by comparison with the more modern Arabic word "gibral," " a height." However, the most convincing explanation, proposed by G. Chic García, refers to the Latin name "Olbensis," subsequently transformed as "Olbe," "Huelbes," "Yelbes," "Gelbes," and eventually Gelves. An amphora used to transport olive oil, found in Central Europe, bears the writing "Olbensis;" the Roman settlement was then part of the "fundus olbensis," an estate whose remains have been excavated by the French archeologist Michel Ponsich in 1974.

In Moorish times, the settlement increased by the input of craftsmen and civil servants, who transformed the rural colony into a small town. In 1247, King Ferdinand III decided to reconquer the town of Seville. The troops led by Pelay Correa sacked Gelves, killing or capturing the villagers who could not have fled in due time. After the reconquest, Gelves was resettled by Portuguese and Castilian colonists. in 1446, King Henry IV transferred the town from its previous lords, Juan de Tovar, to Gonzalo de Guzmán. Tovar did not give up and took the town by force on 21 September 1459; the king ordered the nobles of Seville to show their loyalty by preventing Tovar to stay in the town. Guzmán eventually decided that, after his death, the domain should be sold and the money granted to pious works, which was done by his sons; Pedro Girón, Count of Ureña, purchased the two parts of the town, in 1459 and 1462 respectively. The Tovar did not give up either, so that the town was sequestered in January 1478 and ran by Cardinal Mendoza. On 13 June 1527, the Duke of Frías sold Gelves to Jorge Alberto de Portugal y Melo, who was made Count of Gelves by Charles I on 20 June 1529. He was succeeded on 1543 by his elder son, Álvaro de Portugal y Colón, famous for his support to poets and writers, especially Fernando de Herrera "El Divino" (c. 1534-1597), who was so fond of his patron's wife, Doña Leonor de Milán (but there was no reprocity, though). In the 18th century, the County was transfered by marriage to the House of Alba.

In the 19th century, Gelves was particularly enjoyed by the Romantic poets, due to its picturesque landscape, orchards, gardens and vineyards. Gelves has been portrayed in several works, such as "Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino" by Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas (the source for the libretto of Verdi's "The Force of Destiny"), "Simón Verde" by Fernán Caballero [Cecilia Böhl de Faber] and "Las márgenes del Guadalquivir" by Edmundo Noel. The town and its surroundings have also been described by several foreign travelers, such as Washington Irving, Francisco Rodríguez Marín and Karl Baedeker.

Source: Municipal website

Ivan Sache, 07 Jul 2009

Description

The flag of Gelves was approved by the Municipal Council on 13 July 2007 and submitted on 26 July 2007 to the General Directorate of Local Administration, which confirmed it by Decree on 3 September 2007, published in the Andalusian official gazette (Boletín Oficial de la Junta de Andalucía, BOJA) No. 182 on 14 September 2007.

The relevant parts of the Decree are the following:

Flag made of three horizontal stripes, green, white, and blue, with a relation of 3/2 between its maximum and minimum dimensions, the inner and outer dimensions matching the proportions and standards accepted for the flags of Andalusia and Spain. On the white central stripe is the coat of arms of the town"

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. 182, p. 34, 14 Sep 2007 [PDF]

Ivan Sache, 07 Jul 2009

A flag image is shown on the municipal website, as well as a photograph of real flag (view the photograph separately; it's considerably larger than the dimensions on the page.)

Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 30 Aug 2009

Coat of Arms

Gelves used until 1837 the coat of arms of the County of Gelves, made of the five escutcheons with the Portuguese "quinas" on a field argent and a Duke's coronet. The constitutional municipality, founded in 1837, adopted the same year "Argent, a cypress proper through its trunk an amphora argent fimbriated sable. The shield surmounted by a Duke's coronet." This description is given on the municipal website, which shows a drawing of the coat of arms with the field or, the base per fess wavy azure and argent and an anchor instead of an amphora. This is probably the modernized version of the coat of arms.

Source: Municipal website

Ivan Sache, 07 Jul 2009