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Arboleas (Municipality, Andalusia, Spain)

Flag of Arboleas - Image from the Simbolos de Almería website, 11 January 2017

Presentation of Arboleas
Symbols of Arboleas

See also:

Presentation of Arboleas

The municipality of Arboleas (4,538 inhabitants in 2016; 6,518 ha; municipal website) is located 120 km north-east of Almería.

Arboleas was mentioned, as Alboreas, in Aben al Jatib's Description of the Kingdom of Granada, translated into Spanish in 1860 by Francisco Javier Simonet (1829-1897). In his Glosario de voces ibéricas y latinas usadas entre los mozárabes: precedido de un estudio sobre el dialecto hispano-mozárabe (1888), Simonet claims that the writer Abu Ben Abdalacis al Arboli (14th century), who wrote a famous treaty on food, was named for his birth town, Arboleas.
Arboleas surrendered in 1488 to the Catholic Monarchs, together with the other villages of the Almanzora valley. The village of Perla, known to the Arabs as "the precious pearl", allegedly still conceals the treasures hidden underground by the expelled Moriscos. Their descendants still keep the keys of the houses they had to leave.

The self-taught sculptor Pedro Gilabert (1915-2008) left his birth the village of Las Huevanillas in 1930. He emigrated to Argentina, and, subsequently to France, after the Civil War. Back to Arboleas in 1962, he started an artistic career when aged 63. His sculptures, mostly made in olive wood, yielded him the Silver Medal of Andalusia, awarded in 1989. The cornerstone of the Pedro Gilabert Museum in Arboleas was set on 24 June 1997, while the sculptor was awarded the title of Preferred Son of Arboleas.

Ivan Sache, 11 January 2017

Symbols of Arboleas

The flag of Arboleas is prescribed by an Announcement adopted on 14 April 2005 by the Municipal Council, signed on 16 May by the Mayor, and published on 27 June 2005 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 123, p. 92 (text).
The flag is not described in the Announcement.

The flag (photo, photo, photo) is vertically divided red-green with the municipal coat of arms in the center. The process of registration of the flag does not appear to have been completed yet.

The coat of arms of Arboleas is prescribed by an Order adopted on 19 June 1985 by the Government of Andalusia and published on 12 July 1985 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 70, p. 1,831 (text). This was confirmed by a Resolution adopted on 30 November 2004 by the Government of Andalusia and published on 20 December 2004 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 246, pp. 28,986-29,002 (text).
The coat of arms, which was approved by the Royal Academy of History, is described as follows:

Coat of arms: Argent waves azure and argent in bend sinister surrounded dexter by a tower gules masoned and ports and windows or and sinister by an orange tree vert fructed or. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.

The tower represents the ruined watch tower standing on the Castle's hill.
The waves represent river Almanzor.
Oranges are the main source of income for the town.

Ivan Sache, 11 January 2017