The piece of the month of April 2025

THE FLAG OF THE ARCHES

Víctor Pastor Abaigar
Historian

We cannot point out a fixed date when this symbol of the town of Los Arcos started to be used. It is certain that the current flag was not used from 1463 to 1756 because Los Arcos and the four towns of its district were incorporated to Castilla. The facade of the town hall has a coat of arms that brings us closer to the latter date, because it bears this registration of the date it was made: 1769. 

Around this time, around 1769, we believe that the flag of the town would have been made. We rely on a text written by the vicar Don Juan Antonio de Santo Domingo. He does so at the beginning of the Book of Privilegeswhich, by order of the Town Council, was compiled by this enlightened vicar, a native of Arco. The introduction to the aforementioned Book of Privileges(all manuscript) bears this degree scroll: Arcos y FlechasThe introduction to the Book of Privileges (all manuscript) has this degree scroll: Arches and Arrows, undoubtedly referring to the above-mentioned coat of arms of the town. With baroque language and erudite content, he extols the glories of his people.

Official Flag of the Town of Los Arcos (Navarra)

We offer below a few paragraphs on why the vicar undertook to compile the most important documentation of the town and thus prevent it from being lost. It says textually: Two reasons discover my attention so that, rightly discreet, I have committed myself to bring out of the dark shadows of oblivion the antiquity of its instruments, to the true light of the report all its individuals.

The first so that, in view of so many merits of their progenitors (as such illustrious privileges suppose) their famous children, with glorious emulation, know how to imitate the insignificant of their greatest virtues (tan quam in speculo ornare et comparare vitam tuam ad alienas virtutes: Plutarco). Because the eulogies that in the urns of fame are written do not speak with those who were but with those who are and will be because, these summary agreements of their deeds, leave the predecessors to those who succeed them to infuse true value to their breath.

The second reason is to offer a long campaign to their ingenious speeches because, in order to argue in defense of their rights, it is necessary (as the emperors Diocletian and Maximian said, L.5. C. De transact.) to unravel the fact that so many instruments include, because he who lacks weapons for the fight can hardly go out to the campaign, because it will matter that he ingeniously argues if he lacks news of the fact for the defense. ....

And, leaving the speech of the vicar, we continue our exhibition offering moments in which the municipal flag came out, with official participation of the City Council, as a body of the city. The Holy Week celebrations were days when the banners were taken out. Let's see how it was recorded in the municipal protocol fixed in 1815.

Beginning of a procession, at the entrance of the parish, with members of the City Council, carrying the flag.

Holy Saturday. On this day, the town gives notice to four gentlemen to carry the image of Our Lady of the Rosary in the procession that is made this same day at night, to deposit the said Our Lady in the Capuchin Fathers. In this procession the Regidor of the Noble State carries the PENDON OF THE TOWN and they bring of the tassels, the Regidor of the State of Franks and the General Attorney, this one to the left and that one to the right.

By order of Villa of March 27, 1815, it was agreed on the flag and others to enter the church, the Mayor of Nobles the first, except when leaving and entering with procession.

Easter Sunday of Resurrection. On this day, at nine o'clock in the morning, the procession leaves the parish with the Sacrament, to which the Mayors will go, and goes to the Convent. And arriving at the small square of the, they go out of said Convent the banners that were left the night before, and the crosses and the images. And they make the three corresponding courtesies and they go incorporating in the procession, making it with the PENDON OF VILLA said Regidor de Nobles, in the expressed form. Likewise, when there is rogativa to Santa Maria de Los Arcos for the Mass and Salbe.

So that the Community of the Capuchin Fathers may attend the procession, the town sends a message with the secretary to the Prelate, requesting their attendance. And, the same, in the other processions of the year.

The bailiffs are usually given on this day for two pounds of mutton, for attend to take out the PENDÓN and serve the town.

Thus, at Easter, as at other times of the year, the town has been accustomed to give, by way of a gift, to the Convent of the Capuchin Fathers a ram and a steal of bread and two pitchers of wine.

On behalf of the town, the bell ringer must be notified to ring the bells at the hours of Mass and Salbe, in times of rogation and in other cases that are not ordinary.

Each individual of villa should look for a subject to carry the axe for the said processions of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, in the one of this night and the previous one, and should not be looked at even if it is of greater sphere.

Up to this point, the municipal municipalprotocol . But it is worth noting that most of what was indicated in that 1815 order is still preserved today. The place where it takes place is the same: the place of San Francisco, where the convent of the Friars Minor Capuchins was located. There they gather on Easter day to celebrate the procession of the meeting of the Sorrowful Virgin with the Risen One, present in the consecrated host transported in the monstrance in its carriage. The brotherhoods of the Vera Cruz, San Isidro, San Sebastian, San Lorenzo and San Blas, carrying their cloth banners, of different colors, and the flags of the Spanish Nocturnal Adoration, male and female, along with the flag of the town. The small image of La Dolorosa, private property of the Pérez Goñi family, is also carried. The image is carried by children who accompany the step to make their bows.

All these five banners and the three flags bow to the monstrance (the so-called courtesy in the municipalprotocol ). After this ceremony, the procession goes to the parish church for the celebration of the solemn mass.

Balcony of the Town Hall with the official flags of the town, Navarre, Spain and the European Community.

The previous data , I complete them with this anecdote. As a child, I remember seeing the purple banner of Castile, with its hanging tassels, in the chapel of Santa Ana in the parish cloister of Los Arcos. Although this banner was no longer official after the reincorporation of Los Arcos to Navarre, I think it was kept out of respect and remembrance after almost three hundred years of coexistence with Castile. This information comes supported by documentation of Felipe IIl directed to the alderman of the town, in which, among other details of the text, it indicates to him: "And that, by reason of being alderman, it is given and takes and you take out and you take and you raise the banner of the mentioned town at the time that is raised by me or by the kings that after me suçedieren and in the other days that they usually and customary to take out. And you have in your power the atambores and flags and banners and banners and other insignias that they usually and customarily bring". 

A reference letter to the banner appears in the transfer that, on July 20, 1795, was made of the jewels and ornaments of the parish to Tudela so that they would not fall into the hands of the French: "A small cross of the banner of the town".. Undoubtedly, the cross would be of silver, twisted on the mast. 

We remember that the last service of the primitive flag was to cover the coffin of the mayor José María Blasco Galdiano, who died on December 31, 2000. The coat of arms of the town was painted in oil on the canvas; that coat of arms was reproduced, but embroidered, on the current flag. Also preserved from that flag: the cords, the tassels and the metallic pole, finished in spear point.

The flag presides over the Plenary Hall of the City Hall. When it is taken out in corporate procession, the protocol indicates that the standard bearer is the youngest councilman. The pending tassels are carried by the next youngest councilman and the oldest councilman. When the corporation goes to the parish as a body of the city to celebrate mass, the standard-bearer, at the moment of the consecration, moves from his seat to the center of the chancel rail and, kneeling on the ground, leave the flag, bowing it before the host and chalice.

Members of the City Council, with the flag, next to the presbytery, before the beginning of a procession.

SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

A.M.A.file Los Arcos Municipalfile ). Register of Manuscript Books. Book Nº 1, Privileges of the Town ( 1176 - 1698).
A.M.A. (Municipalfile of Los Arcos). File 209.
PASTOR ABÁIGAR, V., A corner of the history of Los Arcos. Tercio de Voluntarios Realistas (1822 - 1833), Pamplona, Ulzama Ediciones, 2019, pp.16 and 17.