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Municipality of Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz Province, Andalusia, Spain)

Excelentísimo Ayuntamiento de Puerto de Santa María

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image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 02 Dec 2009

Description
Coat of Arms

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Description

The flag of El Puerto de Santa María is a horizontally divided green-over-yellow bicolour with the coat of arms in its centre. I saw this flag on 10 November 2009 in front of the town hall.

Klaus-Michael Schneider, 02 Dec 2009

Coat of Arms

In a blue light field over silver (white) and blue waves is a golden (yellow) castle with a gate, shaped as a tower, masoned black, embattled with red gate and windows, topped by three turrets of the same colour. The central turret is nearly invisible, because it is nearly completely covered by the Most Holy Virgin of Miracles, standing on a golden (yellow) crescent, crowned golden (yellow), wearing white clothes and mantled in black, with hands and face very dark brown. The shield is topped by a royal crown.

In [dyo69], p.221-228 we find the arms had been first mentioned as an image on a seal dated 6 June 1479, and had also been described within an act of the local council in 1607. The Most Holy Virgin of the Miracles was patron of the city and gave its name to the city. In the 18th century an 8-point star replaced the image of St. Mary. Some say, the star would symbolize Goddess Venus, who had a temple near Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Others say, the star was a symbol of the Military Order of Santa Maria, aka Military Order of the Star. In 1852, however, the star was replaced again by the image of St. Mary. The image given in [dyo69] has a dark blue background, is topped by a royal coronet and St. Mary is surrounded by golden rays and has Jesus in her arms. Among experts it is doubtful whether the figure of St. Mary had to be depicted with or without child.

Klaus-Michael Schneider, 02 Dec 2009