Last modified: 2009-11-21 by eugene ipavec
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The municipality of Lebrija (26,046 inhabitants in 2008; 37,520 ha) is located 80 km south of Seville.
Lebrija is locaetd in the estuary of Guadalquivir, once a sea gulf called by the Romans "lago ligustino"; the colony of Nabrissa (Lebrija) was a wealthy and safe inner port. The countryside was exploited by several estates ("villae") growing olive oil and wine directly exported to Rome. At the end of the 3rd century, the decline of the Roman Empire broke trade and the villagers withdrew to a fortified town built on the eastern hill of the Cerro del Castillo (Castle Mount), a hill that had already been settled in the Neolithic. In the 6th century, sea navigation was no longer possible since the "lago ligustino" had became a marsh with little access to the sea. In the Moorish times, Lebrija was no longer a port but a rural town of strategic significance, watching the estuary of Guadalquivir. Built on the Cerro del Castillo, the Moorish fortress was connected to the town walls, so that the town became an "alcazar" (citadel). Conquerred by Fernando III the Saint, Lebrija was maintained as a fortress protecting the Kingdom of Castilie against the Moorish and Portuguese raids. At the end of the 14th century, the foreign threats vanished and the town developed out of the walls. In the 16th-17th centuries, the 6,000 inhabitants of the town lived from agriculture, trading their products to America via the port of Cádiz, especially olive oil, which was the source of the wealth of the town in the 18th century.
Source: Municipal website
Ivan Sache, 14 Jul 2009
The flag and logotype of Lebrija were approved by the Municipal Council on 26 July 2006 and submitted on 28 July 2006 to the General Directorate of Local Administration, which confirmed them by Decree on 28 August 2006, published in the Andalusian official gazette (Boletín Oficial de la Junta de Andalucía, BOJA) No. 175 on 8 September 2006.
The relevant parts of the Decree are the following:
[Flag:] Panel in proportions 3/2 (length per hoist), divided in two equal horizontal stripes: the upper celeste blue and the lower white. In the middle, the municipal coat of arms.
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. 175, p. 42, 98 Sep 2006
The flag is indeed the former, unofficial flag, with the coat of arms. It can be seen, used indoors together with the flags of the European Union, Spain and Andalusia, on photos available on the municipal website. (1, 2)
Ivan Sache, 14 Jul 2009
![[Municipality of Lebrija (Seville Province, Andalusia, Spain)]](../images/e/es-se-lb.gif)
image by Santiago Dotor
Francisco Manuel García reported in the Spanish Vexilologia mailing list the flag of Lebrija, a town in SW Seville province. Lebrija has 23,833 inhabitants and 369,39 sq.km. More information at the provincial government website. He says he saw the flag on TV as a horizontally-divided bicolour of light blue over white (with no arms), hoisted at the town hall. He believes this a different design from that published in Banderas long ago. Most probably the colours are derived from the arms, shown and commented at the provincial government website (Spanish text only).
Santiago Dotor, 04 Jun 2002
According to the municipal website, the coat of arms of Lebrija is prescribed by Decree No. 298 of 11 October 1988 as "Azure on fesses wavy argent and azure a duck argent surmounted by a tower [or] with a turret crenellated and masoned sable port and windows gules flanked dexter and sinister by two lynx argent spotted sable. The drawing attached to the description is a stylization of the official coat of arms, with several details omitted (the tower is neither crenellated nor masoned and the lynx is plain white).
Source: www.lebrija.es
The coat of arms of Lebrija shown on Wikipedia, credited to "Jornalero," does not match the description either (the castle's port and windows are shown or instead of gules) and is surmounted by a weird crown, not in its colours as usually represented on the municipal coat of arms. Source: website of the Mancomunidad of Bajo Guadalquivir.
Ivan Sache, 14 Jul 2009
