León Province (Castile and Leon, Spain)

Last modified: 2001-09-08 by santiago dotor
Keywords: spain | castile and leon | leon | lleón | el bierzo | bierzo | lion: rampant (purpure) | map: outline | nationalist |
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by Antonio Gutiérrez

• León Province
• City of León
• El Bierzo Region
• Town of Cuadros

See also:

• Leonese Nationalist Parties
• Provincial Flags (Spain)
• Castile and Leon (Spain)
• Spain

Other sites:

• VexiLeón (Leonese Flags and Coats-of-Arms) by Antonio Gutiérrez, including the flags of:
  • Town of Alija del Infantado
  • Town of Cabañas Raras
  • Town of Laguna Dalga
  • Town of Mansilla Mayor
  • Town of Puebla de Lillo
  • Town of Quintana del Marco
  • Town of Sariegos
  • Town of La Vecilla
  • Town of Vega de Espinareda
  • Town of Villadangos del Páramo
  • Town of Villaornate y Castro
  • Town of Villarejo de Órbigo
  • Town of Villasabariego

León's official flag is recognised by the Leonese Diputación Provincial (provincial government) and used by official institutions, governments, cities, political parties and by the people. There are at least three variations in the coat-of-arms, a provincial one, a city of León one and the one in our [Conceyu Xoven] website [no longer accessible, but identical to the Leonese Nationalist flag].

Abel Pardo Fernández (General Secretary of Conceyu Xoven and City Councillor of León), 28 September 1998

The provincial flag used unofficially by the Diputación Provincial (Provincial Council) of León is purpure, with the coat-of-arms in the middle: Argent a lion Gules langued armed and crowned with an open royal crown Or; crest: an open royal crown Or. (Translation of coat-of-arms' blazons from Spanish to English provided by Santiago Dotor).

Antonio Gutiérrez, 15 July 1999

According to the Manual del Estado Español (Handbook of the Spanish State, Spanish text only) by Editorial Lama: historical coat-of-arms and flag [meaning there is no known adoption date for either], "Sobre fondo púrpura el escudo Provincial" i.e. purple with the provincial coat-of-arms.

Pascal Vagnat, 16 July 1999

I recently spent a long weekend in northern Leon province. Apart from the Spanish, the Castile and Leon and the Leonese flags there were not many to see. Most towns in the area did not seem to have a flag of their own, and their city halls only displayed the above three flags. Sometimes the Castile and Leon one is ommitted (rarely though on official buildings, but there is a broad feeling against the Castile-and-Leon concept and in favour of separate autonomy for Leon), and frequently only the latter and the Spanish one are flown. Only the city of Leon had a flag of its own.

Santiago Dotor, 14 October 1999

In Leon province there are 211 municipalities, of which only about 30 have their own municipal flag. Eight of these were published in Banderas December 1998 issue, and eight more will be published in the next issue (December 1999). I'll send them to the list shortly.

Antonio Gutiérrez, 15 October 1999

I made some improvements and colour changes (shade of purpure —not purple— and colours of lions corrected) in the Leonese [provincial, city and nationalist] flags, based upon my direct observation of these flags when I spent some days in April 2000 in León. This is the actual look of the flags, with accurate colours in both cloth and Arms. Obviously, the colours are the closest browser-safe ones, but not too far from reality, in fact. Regarding the Arms, both the provincial and nationalist flag uses only these patterns. In the municipal one a wide variety of Arms with different lion's renderings and field shapes are in use.

Antonio Gutiérrez, 21 and 23 June 2000

by Antonio Gutiérrez

The flag used unofficially by the municipality of León is purpure, with the coat-of-arms in the middle: Argent, a lion Gules; crest: a Spanish marquis' crown Or; escutcheon within a cartouche Or.

Antonio Gutiérrez, 15 July 1999

The city of Leon's flag is very similar to that of the province, according to Antonio Gutiérrez. The similarities however seem to be greater. Unlike the flag in FOTWws, the flag displayed at Leon's city hall had no cartouche bordering the coat-of-arms, and the lion was crowned. There was no wind and the flag stood still, hiding some detail, so I could not tell out the shape of the lion's tail —which is a further difference from the provincial flag—.

Actually, none of the flags I saw in Leon city had a cartouche bordering the coat-of-arms. On the other hand, Antonio Gutiérrez's coat-of-arms above [es-le-le.gif] is an excellent rendering of the one used by the city council in documents, proclamations etc. — but apparently not in the flag. Actually I saw one more "misuse" of that coat-of-arms outside the flag: for instance, the Leon Police Department uses a coat-of-arms with a crowned lion.

Santiago Dotor, 14 October 1999

You are surely referring to the flag displayed in the former city hall building. This is the one shown in FOTW as the Leonese nationalist flag. As I wrote in that page, the flag is today widely used, even in public (municipal) buildings in Leon [city] and throughout the province. What Santiago Dotor saw is an example of what I am referring to. In the new city hall the flags are displayed in the roof, too high to see clearly the model of Arms used.

Unlike the provincial government (Diputación Provincial), that always uses the same model of Arms, even in the flag, the municipal government (Ayuntamiento) uses a wide variety of Arms with different lion's renderings (differences in tail, lion crowned or not, shield shape, even different crowns as crest) in local police cars and uniforms, street name plates, etc.; the official design, as Santiago Dotor points out, used in official documents, is the one displayed above [es-le-le.gif].

Antonio Gutiérrez, 15 October 1999