Flag of Abadín

The flag of Abadín is a blue field with a yellow castle in the centre and two fleurs-de-lis, two lilies in the same yellow, one next to the flagpole and the other on the fly side. It is simple and also very recent: the Xunta de Galicia approved it in December 2022.

How it came about

Abadín had a municipal seal with a castle flanked by two fleurs-de-lis from at least 1876. When the council wanted to tidy up its symbols, it took the matter to the Xunta’s Commission of Heraldry, the body that reports, while the Xunta’s Council approves. The plenary provisionally approved the design on 29 July 2022 and the notice was published in the DOG on 31 August. After the Commission gave its all-clear on 21 November, the Galician government approved it by decree: 213/2022, of 1 December, published in the DOG that same day, the 20th.

No designer drew the flag: the decree describes it in one line —‘the blue field and at the centre the castle in yellow accompanied by two fleurs-de-lis of the same, one at the flagpole and the other at the fly’. The coat of arms was approved the same day, with decree 212/2022, but with one change: the two fleurs-de-lis no longer flank the castle and are placed at the flanks of the upper part.

How it has changed

It has not changed: the flag was born with the decree of 2022 and there are no documented later modifications.

What it means

• Blue

  the colour of the field, a single one.

• Golden castle

  in the centre, the same yellow: a three-towered castle on a crenellated wall.

• Fleurs-de-lis

  two lilies in the same yellow, one next to the flagpole and the other on the fly side.

Fun facts

1. The old coat of arms had the lilies at the sides

   The 1876 municipal certification explained the drawing with an explanation of its time: the castle ‘and its lateral branches are nothing but the memory of so many triumphs obtained by the Spanish kings against the enemy invaders in the ancient Middle Ages’. The Commission of Heraldry accepted the historical use but redrew the design.

2. The flag and the coat of arms place the lilies differently

   On the flag, the two fleurs-de-lis flank the castle at the sides: one at the flagpole and the other at the fly. On the coat of arms they instead go in the flanks of the chief, above the castle. Same figures, two ways of placing them, each with its own decree.

3. A name that according to tradition comes from an abbot

   The council admits two accounts of the origin of the name: that it comes from Abul-Casin, founder of a Taifa kingdom, or from a common abbot —‘o Abadín’— whom the monasteries of Meira and Lourenzá had to agree on to collect the tributes. The name first appears in a document of 1562.

4. Two hundred and seventy-seven symbols at a stroke

   On 21 November 2022 the Commission of Heraldry reported favourably on the coat of arms and flag of Abadín and on the flag of Mugardos. That day the Galician government had approved 277 coats of arms and flags of Galician local entities, almost all adapted to the decree that requires reviewing their symbols.

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