Flag of Alcoi

The flag of Alcoi is the Valencian senyera —four red bars on yellow— with two coats of arms in the centre and a crown above. In the city it is called the Bandera Gran de Sant Jordi, because the shield on the left shows the saint on horseback.

How it came about

This design is not a recent invention: it is an old standard that Alcoi brought back out. There are records of a city flag as early as 1509, and in 1582, on 23 April, a new one was presented: in it Saint George appeared on the field for the first time, and not only as the finial of the staff.

In 1840 the Chapter decided to sell it and it was not recovered until the 1980s. The city council began using it in its first constitutional term, the plenary approved it on 25 November 2005 and the Valencian Generalitat confirmed it in 2009, with a single precision: the tones of its colours.

How it has changed

Yes it has changed: this flag has not always existed.

1. 1582

   The flag is inaugurated in which Saint George appears for the first time on the field. It is the version the city later recovered.

2. 1724

   After Alcoi capitulates to the Bourbon forces, a white flag is made with the coat of arms of the Bourbons and that of the city at the four corners.

3. 

   2005

   The plenary approves the flag, which the council had already been using for twenty years. In 2009 the Generalitat gave it official status.

What it means

• Four red bars

  the senyera, the field of the Crown of Aragon on a yellow background, the same one that flies in Catalonia, Aragon and Valencia.

• Shield of Sant Jordi

  on the left, on a blue field, the saint in silver armour on a white horse, with his lance in a golden dragon.

• Shield of the town

  on the right. On a white field, a gate in the wall with a red cross between two hills and two rivers; above, a white dove with the bars of Aragon.

• Open royal crown

  over the two coats of arms.

Fun facts

1. No blue, the reverse of today’s Valencian flag

   That of Alcoi is the pure senyera, of yellow and red. The Valencian Generalitat’s instead carries a blue stripe next to the flagpole: Alcoi keeps the field as it was before the autonomous community existed.

2. Saint George was on the finial, not on the field

   Until 1582 the figure of the saint only crowned the staff, like a crest. From that date onwards he appears on the field, which is precisely what gives today’s flag its name.

3. Twenty years of use before being official

   Alcoi hung it in the town hall from the late 1980s, but it took twenty years to legalise. The only thing the Generalitat asked for when it approved it in 2009 was the exact tone of the colours: the crimson red, the heraldic gold, the brown mountains and the golden dragon.

4. The gala flag was carried by the Justícia

   It was the flag of the processions on Saint George’s Day and Corpus, and it was carried by the Justícia, the municipal authority of the time. In 2012 the council brought it back for the solemn acts of the festivities.

Location