A carmine field with a crowned red lion: the flag of the province of León is widely used, but no rule has ever officially approved it.
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 in carmine with the provincial coat of arms in the 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.
In 1789 a chronicler described it as carmine with six silver shields bearing a gold lion
According to the description in the Wikimedia Commons archive, the Council of León agreed…
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The flag of the province of León is a carmine field, a dark red, with a white coat of arms in the centre. Inside the coat of arms there is a red lion rampant, and above it a royal crown. It should not be confused with the flag of the old Kingdom of León nor with that of the city.
Nobody knows for certain when or who created it. There is no legal text approving it: it is an unofficial flag, that is, one that is normally used but has no formal approval. The Provincial Council displays it in its buildings and at its events.
It seems to derive from an ancient banner of the city of León. In 1789 a chronicler described it as carmine with six silver shields bearing a gold lion. During the nineteenth century those banners were renewed with each new king, and the number of shields changed. The current provincial flag, with a single coat of arms, resembles those nineteenth-century versions more than the medieval one.
According to the description in the Wikimedia Commons archive, the Council of León agreed on a different flag in 1960, of which an embroidered copy exists. The current design, with a single coat of arms, has no known date.
1960-1965
According to Commons, the Council agreed it on 25 June 1960. It had a purple field with the lion coat of arms in the centre and the shields of the ten judicial districts of the time around it.
Today
A carmine field with a single coat of arms bearing the lion, the one used today.
The meaning comes from the coat of arms, not from an official explanation:
Carmine
an intense red, the traditional colour of the banners of the city of León.
Crowned red lion
the animal that gives its name to the old kingdom and to the province, a symbol of León since the Middle Ages.
White coat of arms and royal crown
the arms of the Provincial Council, with an open royal crown above.
In 1789 the banner of the city was described with six silver shields, each with its own lion. Today’s flag has been left with just one.
In the nineteenth century the municipal banners were made anew whenever a new monarch ascended the throne, and the number of shields varied in each version.
Test what you have read about the flag of Province of León.
Sources consulted:
Flag image: jgaray, Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.
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