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Garafía (Municipality, Canary Islands, Spain)

Last modified: 2015-03-07 by ivan sache
Keywords: garafía |
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Flag of Garafía, two versions, as seen on 28 January 2014 in the Town Hall - Image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 10 February 2014

• Presentation of Garafía
• Symbols of Garafía

See also:

• Spain
• Canary Islands (Autonomous Community, Spain)
• Santa Cruz de Tenerife Province (Canary Islands, Spain)
• La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain)

Presentation of Garafía

The municipality of Garafía (2,006 inhabitants; 10,299 ha) is located 90 km from Santa Cruz de la Palma. The seat of the municipality is the village of Santo Domingo. Garafía is one of the biggest by its area but least populated municipalities of the island, the villages being isolated from each other by deep ravines.

Ivan Sache, 24 February 2007

Flag of Garafía

The flag and arms of Garafía are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 16 May 1995 by the Government of the Canary Islands and published on 5 July 1995 in the official gazette of the Canary Islands, No. 84, pp. 6,423-6,424 (text). The symbols were validated on 21 April 1995 by the Heraldry Commission of the Autonomous Community of Canary Islands.
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag:Three equal vertical stripes. Green on [heraldic] right, yellow in the middle, and blue at fly (on left). The coat of arms is placed in the middle stripe.
Coat of arms: Per fess, 1. Azure 14 five-pointed stars argent arranged horizontally 4 x 3 and 2, 2. Argent a pine proper. Grafted in base, gules a circuliform graphism or. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.

The coat of arms features, in turn, bigger and smaller stars, starting in the upper left corner with a bigger star.

According to José Manuel Erbez (Banderas y escudos de Canarias, 2007; website), green reflects the colour of the pine on the coat of arms. Yellow alludes to wheat, a staple crop in the past and for several decades for such a rural municipality. Yellow is also the colour of late afternoon in these western lands, and of brooms (bushes in the family Fabaceae) profusely growing in the mountains. Blue recalls the sky featured in the 1st quarter of the coat of arms and the astronomical observatories located on the municipal territory.
The 1st quarter of the shield represents the sky and the astronomical observatories of the Roque de las Muchachos complex. The 2nd quarter represents the pine growing in the place known as Cruz del Castillo, and, more generally, the forest resources of the municipality. The base features an aboriginal petroglyph found in one of the most important archeological sites of the island.

Klaus-Michael Schneider & Ivan Sache, 10 February 2014