White on top, red below and the coat of arms in the centre: the flag of Cantabria comes from the one used by the ships registered in Santander.
Every fact about the flag, each with what it means.
Normal flagFIAV symbol: the form of the flag.
CivilFIAV symbol: who may fly the flag.YesIt carries the coat of arms on the cloth.The flag in the words of vexillology and heraldry.
It is a rectangular field with a 2:3 ratio and two equal horizontal stripes, white on top and red below, and the coat of arms of the community in the geometric centre.
Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.
Every date in its story, at a glance.
Coat of arms: a tower and a ship breaking a chain, in memory of the conquest of Seville in 1248,…
In 1845 these designs were distributed all along the coast
When Cantabria became an autonomous community, its Statute of 1981 adopted it with the coat…
The last thing to be fixed was the coat of arms, which a regional law defined on 22 December 1984
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The flag of Cantabria has two equal horizontal stripes: white on top and red below, with the coat of arms of the community in the centre. It is a flag born at sea: before it represented the whole region, it identified the ships of the port of Santander.
In the nineteenth century, every Spanish ship had to carry a flag indicating which “maritime province” it was registered in, like a number plate. In 1845 these designs were distributed all along the coast. Some historians argue that Santander was allowed to keep the white and red flag it was already using.
Over time, the white and red flag left the port and came to represent the whole province. In the second decade of the twentieth century the colours were divided: the city of Santander kept its white and blue flag, and the Provincial Council the white and red one. When Cantabria became an autonomous community, its Statute of 1981 adopted it with the coat of arms in the centre.
The stripes have not changed. The last thing to be fixed was the coat of arms, which a regional law defined on 22 December 1984.
The law does not explain the colours. What is known is where they come from:
White and red
the colours of the old registration flag of the ships of Santander.
Coat of arms
a tower and a ship breaking a chain, in memory of the conquest of Seville in 1248, in which Cantabrian sailors took part. Below it is a stela, an ancient carved stone with circular drawings.
The city of Santander had a white and blue flag, but for years it used the white and red one of its maritime registration. It only went back to its own after a report from the early twentieth century.
On 14 March 2016, the Parliament of Cantabria recognised the labarum, a purple cloth with a cross of curved lines, as a symbol of the Cantabrian people. It does not replace the official flag.
A painting of the Battle of Vargas, of 1833, shows soldiers from Santander with small white and red flags. Some take it as proof that the flag was already used on land, but others point out that the painter made mistakes in the uniforms.
Test what you have read about the flag of Cantabria.
Text based on the article “Bandera de Cantabria” from the Spanish Wikipedia, published under the licence CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sources consulted:
Flag image: HansenBCN, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.5.
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