Senyera

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2: 3 flag of Catalonia
Photo of a house with the flags “Si”, the Senyera and the Estelada
Variants of the Senyera and flags derived from it during the campaign for the independence referendum 2017 in Barcelona

Senyera ( Catalan ) or Señera ( Spanish ) is the official flag of the autonomous community of Catalonia in northeastern Spain . It consists of a yellow (actually golden) background with four red bars on it. The color sequence of the senyera is also known as Barras de Aragón .

Disambiguation

The Catalan word senyera stands for flag or banner . If the flag of another state is meant, the word is supplemented with a corresponding attribute - for example: senyera de alemanya = flag of Germany . However, if the word senyera is used without an attribute, the national flag of Catalonia is almost automatically meant. So it is an antonomasia .

history

Allegedly, the senyera (from 1159) is the oldest flag in the world. According to a legend from the 14th century, the history of the flag even goes back to the 9th century. Legend has it that Count Wilfried the Hairy was fatally injured in a battle. King Charles the Bald is said to have dipped his fingers into the wounded man's bleeding wound and smeared four red stripes on Wilfried's golden shield . According to another account, Wilfried the Hairy did this himself.

It is more likely, however, that the flag was derived from pre-aldic symbols from the 11th or 12th centuries. Originally the senyera goes back to the coat of arms of the county of Barcelona ; The stripes on it are vertical, whereas on today's flag they are horizontal. Tradition tells of an Aragonese origin and a reference to the papal colors in the 11th century.

At the beginning there was still a family coat of arms of Ramon Berenguer IV (around 1150) and Alfons II (from 1163), the senyera soon stood for all territories in which the counts ruled and later for all territories of the Aragonese crown . The oldest surviving flag is the Pendón de la Conquista , which is dated to the time of the conquest of Valencia in 1238. Today the official flags and coats of arms of numerous territories are based on the senyera , such as those of Aragon , the Balearic Islands , the Valencia region and other provinces and regions such as Roussillon in southern France . In addition, the senyera is depicted on the coats of arms of Andorra and numerous cities, and it can be found in the collar of the FC Barcelona jerseys . Some unofficial flags are also based on the senyera , such as the estelada , which is used by supporters of Catalan independence.

Under the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera (1923–1930) and later under that of Franco (1939–1975) the use of the senyera as a Catalan national symbol was forbidden. The senyera thus became a symbol of the political resistance against the Francoist regime .

meaning

The senyera is one of the most important symbols that the Catalans use to show their independence from the rest of Spain. This relates to the Catalan national pride as well as the maintenance or expansion of regional autonomy and self-sufficiency within the Spanish state up to complete independence from the Spanish state. In all Catalan cities and municipalities, countless windows and balconies are permanently adorned with the senyera or one of its modifications - especially the estelada .

variants

Some variants of the senyera :

Web links

Commons : Senyeres  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: senyera  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Carlos Collado Seidel : Small history of Catalonia . 2nd Edition. No. 1759 . Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-406-72766-5 , p. 195 f .
  2. ↑ Hedwig Herold-Schmidt: From the end of the First to the failure of the Second Republic (1874-1939) in: Peer Schmidt: Kleine Geschichte Spaniens , p. 393, Reclam, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-15-017039-7
  3. ↑ Simon Harris: Understanding Catalan Flags - La Senyera and L'Estelada. Retrieved October 17, 2017 .