The flag of the

Valencian Community The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid with ...

and of the city of Valencia, known as ''Reial Senyera'' (, "Royal Senyera"), is the traditional

Senyera The Senyera (; meaning "pennon", "standard", "banner", "ensign", or, more generically, "flag" in Catalan language, Catalan) is a vexillological symbol based on the coat of arms of the Crown of Aragon, which consists of four red stripes on a yel ...

, composed of four red bars on a yellow background, crowned with a blue strip party per pale next to the hoist with a quarter of the total length. It was adopted on 1 July 1982. It is an historical derivation of the ''

'', the heraldic symbol of the

Crown of Aragon The Crown of Aragon ( , ) an, Corona d'Aragón ; ca, Corona d'Aragó, , , ; es, Corona de Aragón ; la, Corona Aragonum . was a composite monarchy ruled by one king, originated by the dynastic union of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of B ...

, also used today with few variations in all the former kingdoms and counties which were a part of this crown.

History of the flag

As many other flags of medieval origin, the

, or "" (royal

ensign An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...

), was used in those years as the arms of the

King of Aragon This is a list of the kings and queens of Aragon. The Kingdom of Aragon was created sometime between 950 and 1035 when the County of Aragon, which had been acquired by the Kingdom of Navarre in the tenth century, was separated from Navarre in ...

. While not existing still in the Middle Ages, the concept of

national flag A national flag is a flag that represents and symbolizes a given nation. It is flown by the government of that nation, but usually can also be flown by its citizens. A national flag is typically designed with specific meanings for its colours ...

as understood today, the true symbol of the nationality was constituted on the royal shield. Escut de València

It is traditionally considered that a Senyera was granted by

James I of Aragon James I the Conqueror ( es, Jaime el Conquistador, ca, Jaume el Conqueridor; 2 February 1208 – 27 July 1276) was King of Aragon and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276; King of Majorca from 1231 to 1276; and Valencia from 1238 to 1276 ...

as the arms of Valencia following the Christian conquest from Moorish rule in 1238, although the earliest sources related to this are dated in 1377, when the City Council agreed to replace the old arms used for

seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to impr ...

s with a new one with the Senyera. While the origins of the usage of the Senyera as a coat of arms remain unclear in the agreement, a crown in the helm and two "L" as supporters were added, according to an honour awarded by

Peter IV of Aragon Peter IV, ; an, Pero, ; es, Pedro, . In Catalan, he may also be nicknamed ''el del punyalet'': "he of the little dagger". (Catalan: ''Pere IV''; 5 September 1319 – 6 January 1387), called the Ceremonious (Catalan: ''el Cerimoniós''), w ...

for the loyalty and courage shown by Valencians to him in several wars such as the

War of the Two Peters The War of the Two Peters ( es, La Guerra de los Dos Pedros, ca, Guerra dels dos Peres) was fought from 1356 to 1375 between the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon. Its name refers to the rulers of the countries, Peter of Castile and Peter IV of ...

against the

Kingdom of Castile The Kingdom of Castile (; es, Reino de Castilla, la, Regnum Castellae) was a large and powerful state on the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region. It began in the 9th centu ...

. This Valencian coat of arms began to be used in textile standard as a

pennon A pennon, also known as a pennant or pendant, is a long narrow flag which is larger at the hoist than at the fly. It can have several shapes, such as triangular, tapering (square tail) or triangular swallowtail (forked tail), etc. In maritime ...

, including the crown in a fringe, although the blue colour was slightly different. It was , meaning two swallow tails, or ( es, abocelada), that's only one swallow rounded and higher tail. The latter is one of the two shapes used and officially regulated today, together with the

rectangle In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90°); or a parallelogram containi ...

, for Valencian municipalities.Examples of this shape are the official flags of

Vall de Gallinera La Vall de Gallinera is a valley and a municipality in north-east Alicante, Spain, included in the Marina Alta comarca. It is formed by the nuclei of Benirrama, Benialí, Benissivà, Benitaia, Carroja, Alpatró, Llombai and Benissili. All these set ...

and

Betxí Betxí ( es, Bechí) is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Plana Baixa in the province of Castellón (Valencian Community), Spain. It is famous by its international Rock Music FestivaSant Antoni Pop Festival See also * List of municipalities i ...

. See The only currently preserved pennon, commonly considered a copy of the original, was made in the 17th century and is kept, though very damaged, at the City Historical Archive of

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

Flag protocol

The flag of Valencia is to be hoisted both outside and inside of each and every public and civil building of the

, without endangering the prominence and most honorable place of the

Flag of Spain The national flag of Spain ( es, Bandera de España), as it is defined in the Constitution of 1978, consists of three horizontal stripes: red, yellow and red, the yellow stripe being twice the size of each red stripe. Traditionally, the middle ...

. It has to be hoisted at the right of the National flag (left from viewer's point). The Flag of Valencia can't be bigger than the Flag of Spain nor smaller than the flags of other entities.

Historical flags

File:Penó_de_la_Conquesta.svg, The Pennon of the Conquest of Valencia. Unknown ratio File:Senyera valenciana preautonòmica.svg, Flag used by Pre-autonomous Council of the Valencian Country (1979–1980). File:Senyera valenciana de l'Estatut de Benicàssim.svg , Proposed flag during the Statute of Benicassim. Unknown ratio File:Flag of the Land of Valencia (swallowtailed).svg, Historical version of the Valencian senyera, between 15th and 18th centuries. Unknown ratio Political Flags File:Senyera del nacionalisme valencià.svg, Valencian nationalism estrelada. Unknown ratio File:Senyera d'Esquerra Valenciana (1931).svg, Flag of

Esquerra Valenciana Valencian Left ( ca-valencia, Esquerra Valenciana) is a nationalist Valencian leftist party founded in the Valencian Community, founded in April, 1998 a group of ex-members of Unitat del Poble Valencià (Valencian People's Union) formed left thi ...

during the

Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII, and was di ...

. Unknown ratio

Gallery

File:Palau de la Generalitat del País Valencià 2.jpg, Hoisted at the ''Palau de la Generalitat'' File:Valencian flag atop guard tower.jpg, Flying at top of Tower of Serrans (

) File:Bandera de la ciutat de València (Senyera Coronada) a les Torres de Serrans.JPG, Another senyera hoisted at Tower of Serrans File:Torres de Quart2.JPG, At top of Towers of Quart (

)

References

External links

Spanish Vexillological Society on the Valencian flag
Spanish Only

Spanish only

Spanish only

Historic images {{Lists of flags Senyera Real Flag

Valencian Valencian () or Valencian language () is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and unofficially in the Carche, El Carche comarca in Región de Murcia, Murcia (Spain), to refer to the Romance lan ...