Flag of Cabra

The flag of Cabra is the only one of the batch that cannot be read at a glance: it is split into two halves, and one of them has no stripes but a mesh of triangles in four colours. The other half is normal: four horizontal stripes with the coat of arms in the centre. The two halves take up the same surface.

How it came about

Cabra is a town in the Cordoban countryside, with Our Lady of the Sierra as its patron. The current flag is not ancient: it comes from the eighties, when the municipal corporation decided the village needed a banner. In 1989 the town council launched a competition of ideas and the winner was the designer Miguel Ángel Gersol.

Before that, and during the Second Republic, Cabra used a much simpler flag: three horizontal stripes, blue, purple and blue.

The flag was officially entered in the Andalusian Register of Local Entities by resolution of 13 June 2014, of the Dirección General de Administración Local, published in BOJA number 122 of 26 June of that year. It is that resolution which describes it: a rectangle divided vertically into two equal parts; the first, by the mast, with four stripes of three squares each, and each square formed by four isosceles triangles in red, white, yellow and green; the second half, with four equal stripes, from top to bottom red, yellow, white and green, and the coat of arms in the centre occupying the yellow and white stripes.

How it has changed

It has changed: the one for the pilgrimages is earlier than the municipal flag, and the municipal one, from 1989, replaced the republican one of three stripes.

What it means

• Red, yellow, green and white

  the four colours of the coat of arms of the city.

• Chequer of triangles

  the half by the mast, where the squares are formed with four triangles of alternating colours.

• Four stripes

  the fly half, in red, yellow, white and green.

• Coat of arms

  centred in the fly half.

Fun facts

1. Forty-eight triangles in one half

   The half by the mast has no stripes: it has four stripes of three squares, and each square is four isosceles triangles in the four colours. That makes 48 triangles. The other half, on the other hand, is four horizontal stripes and nothing more.

2. A flag made from a pilgrimage

   The triangles are not the designer’s invention: they come from the flag used at the pilgrimages of Our Lady of the Sierra, the patron of the village. The Cabra town council even put up a public sculpture in honour of the pilgrimage flag, which is the one that inspired the flag of the city.

3. A quarter of each colour

   If you count the triangles you will see there are twelve of each colour: a quarter of the flag is red, another yellow, another green and another white. The coat of arms, on the other hand, is on the right half, over the yellow and white stripes.

4. Before it was blue, purple and blue

   The current flag is from the eighties. The previous one, and the one used during the Second Republic, was much simpler: three horizontal stripes, blue, purple and blue. The colours purple and blue do not appear on today’s flag.

5. A competition in 1989 and a designer with a name

   The flag came out of a competition of ideas launched by the town council in 1989, won by the designer Miguel Ángel Gersol. In March 2014 the twenty-fifth anniversary of the flag was celebrated with a municipal ceremony and a musical piece dedicated to it.