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Municipality of Valencina de la Concepción (Seville Province, Andalusia, Spain)

2:3
image after the municipal website, 13 Jul 2009

Introduction
Description
Coat of Arms

See also:

Introduction

The municipality of Valencina de la Concepción (7,875 inhabitants in 2008; 2,514 ha) is located 10 km east of Seville.

The site of Valencina has been settled since prehistoric times, as proved by the permanent settlements (huts, silos, pits) and necropoles (dolmens of La Pastoria and Matarrubilla, found in 1860 and 1917, respectively) excavated on the hill of Aljarafe, dated from the Age of Bronze (c. 4000 BC).

The name of Valencina was coined in the "Repartimiento de Sevilla" (The Sharing Out of Sevilla), made in the middle of the 13th century by King Alfonso X the Wise to share the territories reconquerred from the Moors among his vassals. The medievist D. Julio González writes that the local toponyms of Roman origin were castilianized with suffixes like "-ana," "-ena," "-ina." Accordingly, Valencina most probably comes from the Roman toponym Valens. The second part of the name of the town recalls that, according to the local tradition, Valencina was the first parish to recognize the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX, 8 December 1854; privately informed of the event, the Infant María Luisa, then staying in Seville, told it to her confessor, the Franciscan Father Manolito, who aired the good news to his parishioners before the official announcement. The name of Valencina de la Concepción was officially granted to the town on 14 February 1948.

In the Middle Ages, Valencina belonged to the family of Los Ortices, for which the domain was later upgraded to a Marquisate. In the beginning of the 20th century, the Valencina territory was mostly shared by the Marquis of Casamendaro, owner of the Torrijos estate, then the biggest and economically most significant component of the municipality, and the Count of Tilly, owner of the namesake estate and mill, dating back to the 17th century and forming the core of the old village. The local noble families were then superseded as the "rulers" of Valencina by the torero Emilio Torres Reina “El Bombita” (1874-1947), who retired in the village. Torres owned most of the municipal territory until the 1940-1950s, when his former goods were shared among several small landlords, each owning no more than 250 ha. Former customers or allies of Torres, the new landlords maintained a complex system of relationships but could not rule the village as Torres could have done. In the 1960s, industrialization of the town ended this rural system.

Source: Municipal website, Presentation of the prehistoric remains

Ivan Sache, 13 Jul 2009

Description

The flag and arms of Valencina de la Concepción were approved by the Municipal Council on 15 June 2006 and submitted on 27 June 2006 to the General Directorate of Local Administration, which confirmed them by Decree on 13 July 2006, published in the Andalusian official gazette (Boletín Oficial de la Junta de Andalucía, BOJA) No. 146 on 31 July 2006.

The relevant parts of the Decree are the following:

Coat of arms: Shield divided per fess the lower half divided per pale. 1. Gules a tower or port and windows azure. 2. Argent a dolmen proper on a terrace vert. 3. Azure a mullet or. The shield surmounted with a Royal Spanish crown closed.

Flag: Rectangular panel, in proportions 2:3, white with two horizontal stripes on the borders, 1/5 of the panel [hoist], divided in two horizontal stripes of the same proportion, blue inside the panel and yellow outside, in the middle of the panel the municipal coat of arms in its colours.

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. 146, p. 51, 31 Jul 2006

Ivan Sache, 13 Jul 2009

Coat of Arms

Valencina must have used in the past another coat of arms, which is shown on the aforementioned leaflet presenting the Prehistoric remains. The coat of arms shown there is blue with a white castle with red port and windows, surmounted by a star seemingly yellow and (maybe) flanked by two smaller things. The new coat of arms seems to have reused elements of the former one, adding the dolmen to highlight the (pre)historic hotspot of the municipality.

Ivan Sache, 13 Jul 2009