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Cortelazor (Municipality, Andalusia, Spain)

Flag of Cortelazor - Image from the Símbolos de Huelva website, 21 August 2016

Presentation of Cortelazor
Symbols of Cortelazor

See also:

Presentation of Cortelazor

The municipality of Cortelazor (locally, Cortelazor la Real; 283 inhabitants in 2015; 4,000 ha; municipal website) is located 120 km north of Huelva.
The emblem of the village is the Old Elm, probably 900 years old, and once used by the Village Council as a place of meeting. Since 1999, the village has been organizing on the first Saturday of August the National Festival of Outdoor Painting, attracting every year dozens of painters.

Cortelazor was already settled in the Roman times, as evidenced by coins, tiles and fragments of marble columns discovered near La Coronada. The settlement was most probably very humble, since no other remains of human activity predating the Christian reconquest have been found. A local legend, however, claims that the village was indeed the court (corte) of a local Moorish king named Azor.
Yet another legend explains the foundation of the village during the sharing of the reconquerred territories. The Palomero brothers are said to have established two hamlet (cortes) named Corterrangel, for one of the brother, and Cortelazor, for its location, randomly decided (corte al azar). Rodolfo Rocio believes that the village was named for the neighbouring Mt. Azor, which is named on some maps of the time.

Historical evidence establishes the foundation of the village in the middle of the 13th century, around a chapel erected in La Coronada. The chapel was one of the four chapels built in the reconquerred mountains Incorporated to Aracena, Cortelazor was granted the status of villa in 1631 by King Philip IV; the grant was confirmed in 1818 by Ferdinand VII. The population of the village peaked at 1,000 in 1887.

Ivan Sache, 21 August 2016

Symbols of Cortelazor

The flag (photo, photo, photo) and arms of Cortelazor, adopted on 17 March 1995 by the Municipal Council and validated on 2 May 1996 by the Royal Academy of C—rdoba, are prescribed by Decree No. 338, adopted on 9 July 1996 by the Government of Andalusia and published on 17 August 1996 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 94, pp. 10,072-10,073 (text). This was confirmed by a Resolution adopted on 30 November 2004 by the Directorate General of the Local Administration and published on 20 December 2004 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 246, pp. 28,986-29,002 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 11 x 18, tierced per bend sinister. First, red; second, white; third, yellow. Charged in the center with the local coat of arms.
Coat of arms: Gules a goshawk argent ornamented sable ensigned by a Royal crown open or. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.

The symbols were designed by Juan José Antequera.
The coat of arms forms a rebus of the town's name, based on the spurious etymology corte del rey Azor; azor means "a goshawk" in Spanish.

Ivan Sache, 21 August 2016