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Catalonia (Spain)

Catalunya

Xabier Ormaetxea, 1995-08-09

Name of the flag

Name of the flag

The Catalonian flag is called the "Senyera" ("the banner"). Note also that the Catalonian hymn deals with the same thing.

Pascal Vagnat, 1995-11-28

It is sometimes incorrectly said that "Senyera" ultimately comes from the Spansih words "sangre y oro" (blood and gold). However, this is wrong. Catalan is not Spanish (it is much more similar to a Portuguese-French mix, the phonetic and grammatical structures are clearly comparable to those of French and Italian, and the Latin origin is stronger than the Latin-Arabic influences in Spanish). The Catalan words for "blood and gold" in Catalan are "sang i or". The translation of the word "senyera" into English is "indicative" (se�alizador, in Spanish), since "senyal" can be translated as "sign". It is also related to "seny"; this word is hardly translatable into Spanish or English, but the most accepted meaning of it is "cocktail of common sense, wisdom and prudence" and comes from the expression "Seny i Rauxa" (rauxa could be explained somehow as "lack of seny") that describes the two opposed poles of Catalan personality. The confusion arises from the use of the same colours as in the Spanish flag, where they have been said to represent the so-said "prosperity" of Spain when the flag was first created, and the blood of those who fell defending it. The red color of the Catalan Flag is also blood, Ramon Berenguer's blood, but on the gold color of the Catalan war board.

Then about the independentist flag, there are two versions: both of them consist of the four red stripes on yellow background, with a triangle and a star on one end of the flag. The differences are in the triangle - a few people use a yellow triangle with a red star. The most common version, though, (largely used in Catalunya (Catalonia) in celebrations, demonstrations and supporting the F.C. Barcelona team for some small and simple examples), has a blue triangle and a 5-pointed white star. This is said to represent the territories of Catalunya, that's to say: 1.- Catalunya itself, (the part in Spain, also referred to as "El Principat" -The Principality-), 2.- Valencia (conquered by James 1st The Conqueror), 3.- Rossello (French part divided from the main part by the Pyrenees Treaty) 4,- Balearic Islands (conquered by James 1st) and 5,- Alghero City (Ciutat d'Alger) on the island of Sardinia. It is said that the star should be a 7-pointed one, to include the west Catalan region that belongs to Aragon, and Andorra, since it is the only sovereign state that has as its only official language the Catalan.
Jordi Pastalle

I believe that Barcelona, along with all of Catalonia was incorporated into Aragon in 1131. In 1479 they both were incorporated into Castile. An illuminated manuscript is said to repose in the Biblioteca Nacional at Madrid. It is reputed to have been writed by an unmamed Franciscian frair (born in 1305) around 1350. It was edited by the Spanish scholar Marcos Jimenez de la España around 1877 with the aid of Don Francisco Coello, the eminent geographer. It was published in English, along with the flags by the Hakluyt Society before the WWI. The National Geographic Magazine of Oct. 1917 quotes him thus:

There is a picturesque legend concerning the adoption of this device. Far back in history, an heiress of Aragon married the Count of Barcelona, and the gold shield of the latter was adopted by the kingdom. After a battle, however, Raymond Berenger, Count of Barcelona, wiped his bloody fingers down the shield and thereafter it became "or with five pales gules"--gold with five red stripes."

The flag bulletin of Dr. Smith's flag research center #xv111:5 of Sept-Oct 1979 shows 16th century flags of Aragon with the number of stripes varying from 3 to 8.

William M. Grimes-Wyatt, 1995-12-15

The stripes of gules (red) on gold are not five, as William M. Grimes-Wyatt says, but four, since the traditional Catalan salutation was four fingers spread (separated from each other) high, with the thumb folded on the palm.
Jordi Pastalle

The flag of Catalonia with a blue triangle (in the style of the Czech flag) and white star in it, was designed around 1904 for Catalan nationalists who had returned from Cuba after its independence in 1902, and the rout of Spain in the war against the United States. (1898-99). It was adopted as the insignia of the Party "Estat Catala" (Catalan State), which proposed the creation of an independent Catalan state, the flag of which would include a blue triangle (since the flag without triangle is considered the flag of the Catalan nation but not of the state. The nickname of this flag is "estelada", which means "the one that carries a star". It became so popular that it was one of the two flags used on 14 April 1931 in the proclamation of the Catalan Republic (a short-lived republic that was rescinded within one week under pressure from the Spanish). The Party "Esquerra republicana of Catalonia", that governed Catalonia between 1931 and 1939 (the president Companys was executed by Franco in 1940) adopted the flag and afterwards was merged with the party Estat Catala.

Currently some radical nationalists who propose the formation of a Catalan independent state encompassing Valencia, Balearic, Roussillon (administered currently by France) and Algher (in Sardinia, administered by Italy) have adopted a variant of the flag that includes the triangle in yellow and the star in red. There is also a design in which the triangle is less extended, and one in which the triangle is red and the star yellow).
Jaume Oll�