The

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...

has a rectangular shield, round in base (also called ''Spanish shield'' in

heraldry Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known bran ...

) and the field is ''party en

fess In heraldry, a fess or fesse (from Middle English ''fesse'', from Old French ''faisse'', from Latin ''fascia'', "band") is a charge on a coat of arms (or flag) that takes the form of a band running horizontally across the centre of the shi ...

''. In field azure, a tower or crenellated and masoned, port and windows azure, to its right a ship in natural colours that with its bow has broken a chain

sable The sable (''Martes zibellina'') is a species of marten, a small omnivorous mammal primarily inhabiting the forest environments of Russia, from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, and northern Mongolia. Its habitat also borders eastern Kaza ...

going from the tower to the dexter flank of the shield. At the base, sea waves

argent In heraldry, argent () is the tincture of silver, and belongs to the class of light tinctures called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it. In engravings and line drawings, regions to ...

and azure, all surmounted in chief by two male heads, severed and haloed. In field

gules In heraldry, gules () is the tincture with the colour red. It is one of the class of five dark tinctures called "colours", the others being azure (blue), sable (black), vert (green) and purpure (purple). In engraving, it is sometimes depict ...

, a disc-shaped

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek language, Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ...

with geometric ornaments of the kind of the Cantabrian steles of

Barros Barros is a Portuguese and Galician surname. It may refer to: People * Alejandra Barros, Mexican actress * Alex Barros, Brazilian motorcycle road racer *Ana Beatriz Barros, Brazilian model * Ana P. Barros, American civil and environmental enginee ...

or Lombera. The crest is a closed royal crown, a circle of jeweled gold, made up of eight rosettes in the shape of ''acanthus'' leaves, only five visible, interpolated with pearls, and with half-arches topped with pearls raising from each leaf and converging in an orb azure, with submeridian and equator or, topped with cross or. The crown, covered in gules. The coat of arms was designed by a commission of experts made up of members of the Royal Academy of History. After long debates they decided to have two differentiated parts: one historical and hagiographic, and the other characteristical.Symbols of Cantabria
Web site of the Cantabrian Parliament The historic part of the first field shows the emblem of the conquest of

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Penins ...

by Cantabrian marines in 1248, with the tower (representing the '' Torre del Oro'') and the

ship breaking Ship-breaking (also known as ship recycling, ship demolition, ship dismantling, or ship cracking) is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships for either a source of parts, which can be sold for re-use, or for the extractio ...

the chains that blocked the way through the river

Guadalquivir The Guadalquivir (, also , , ) is the fifth-longest river in the Iberian Peninsula and the second-longest river with its entire length in Spain. The Guadalquivir is the only major navigable river in Spain. Currently it is navigable from the Gul ...

. It symbolizes the eight centuries of activity that characterised the maritime Cantabria. The hagiographic references consist in the heads of the martyr saints

Emeterius and Celedonius :''Another Saint Emeterius is associated with the legend of Saint Severus of Barcelona.'' Saints Emeterius (or Hemeterius, Madir) and Celedonius ( es, San Emeterio y San Celedonio; la, Emeterius et Caeledonius; died 300 AD) are venerated as sain ...

, representing the unity of the territory under their patronage. The second field shows the image of one of the most important legates left by the primitive people who inhabited the region: the giant steles of the

Cantabri The Cantabri ( grc-gre, Καντάβροι, ''Kantabroi'') or Ancient Cantabrians, were a pre-Roman people and large tribal federation that lived in the northern coastal region of ancient Iberia in the second half of the first millennium BC. Thes ...

. The Stele of Barros (discovered in the town of the same name) was taken as model. The official coat of arms of Cantabria completes with the inclusion of the Spanish royal crown.

References

{{Spanish coats of arms

Coat A coat typically is an outer garment for the upper body as worn by either gender for warmth or fashion. Coats typically have long sleeves and are open down the front and closing by means of buttons, zippers, hook-and-loop fasteners, toggles, ...

See also

References