The piece of the month of January 2025
THE FLAG OF UZTARROZ:
ANTIQUITY, EMBROIDERY AND WITNESS OF A HERALDIC CRISIS.
José Ignacio Riezu Boj
University of Navarra
The present work has as goal to put in value the flag of Uztarroz. Three important reasons make it worthy of being an important asset of the Roncal valley: its antiquity, the embroideries that adorn it and the design the central coat of arms. I would like to thank María Jesús Ezquer from Casa Arreaga for the first news and pictures about the flag.
Seniority
Currently there are seven municipal flags in the Roncal Valley, one for each municipality, and the so-called flag of the Valley, guarded at the headquarters of the board of the valley in Roncal. In all probability the origin of the eight flags is the same since their design and colors are very similar, except those of Burgui and mainly Vidangoz that have lost it. The flag of Uztarroz (SEE FIGURE 1) presents in the center a large red cross with three branches or knots coming out of its arms. It is the so-called St. Andrew's cross with knots or Burgundy cross. Framing the cross is a square border formed by alternating red and white triangles. The background of the cross, presents a checkerboard of triangles and on it, inscribed in each angle of the flagpole, a circle with an eight-pointed star formed by alternating white, blue, yellow and green diamonds. The outer part of the flag is formed by a large border with 14 stripes in v on each side, alternating white, blue, yellow and green. At the corners are placed green suns with yellow background. The flag ends with another border of red and white triangles like the one surrounding the cross. As we already published in Diario de Navarra (27-6-2010), the origin of this subject of flags goes back to the local militias organized to defend the borders of the kingdom. These militias had the right to use their own banner, taking as models the flags of the Spanish tercios that used the cross of Burgundy (symbol of the Hapsburgs) in red on a white background. Over time, the flags were personalized with complicated designs of borders and multicolored checkerboard patterns, always with the red Burgundy cross in the center. This is the same origin of many flags that still exist today as municipal or regional ensigns in several towns and valleys of the Navarre Pyrenees, as well as in other Spanish regions. The only dated flag of the Roncal valley is the one of Uztarroz, which presents in its central embroidery the date 1802. It can be considered one of the oldest examples of the valley.
Fig. 1 Flag of Uztarroz. Reverse
Embroidery
All the flags of the Roncal Valley have a central frame that on the front sample the coat of arms of the valley and on the back the image of the patron saint of each municipality. In Uztarroz, this frame is magnificently embroidered, unlike the rest of the flags of the valley, which are painted. The patron saint of Uztarroz is Saint Engracia (SEE FIGURE 2). The image of the saint appears standing with tunic and cape executed in the technique of embroidery tinged with a great variety of green colors for the tunic, and pink for the cape. The image appears crowned, carrying in her left hand a crucifix and in the right hand the palm of martyrdom embroidered in silver. The saint is surrounded by vegetal motifs embroidered in gold and silver and sample two cartouches embroidered in black thread, the upper one dating the work in 1802 and the lower one identifying the image as St. Engracia. A gold frame finishes the work.
Fig. 2 Central box on the back of the flag of Uztarroz with the embroidery of Santa Engracia.
On the obverse the flag presents a colorful coat of arms of the valley embroidered with gold, silver and colored threads surrounded by vegetal motifs in different colors, golden and silvered roundels and crowned with a helmet of different colors (SEE FIGURE 3). The perfection of the finish and the use of a large number of types of embroidery such as plain gold embroidery and shaded or colored embroidery, sequins, flakes, etc., stand out in the whole ensemble.
Fig. 3 Central frame of the obverse of the flag of Uztarroz with the embroidery of the coat of arms of the Roncal valley.
These two embroideries that we have just described show a great technical and artistic quality and we can consider them true works of art of the Navarrese civil embroidery. I have tried to locate in the municipal file of Uztarroz the conference proceedings of execution of the flag, but unfortunately the books of these years have disappeared. It seems that the wars with the French neighbors wreaked havoc in the municipal file of Uztarroz. According to Alicia Andueza's publications, the high quality of these works point to Zaragoza workshops such as those of the Lizuain family, especially the brothers Francisco and Jose Lizuain, active in Zaragoza between 1795 and 1806 the first one and 1795 and 1829 the second one.
Shield
As a third reason to value the flag of Uztarroz we have to comment the coat of arms, which testifies the little known conflict originated when the king granted new currencies for the coat of arms of the valley. The coat of arms of the Roncal valley, whose origin is lost in the mist of the legends of the eighth century, was formed until 1798 by a Moorish head on a bridge and three rocks. On September 20, 1797, after the end of the war of the convention, initiated by the French revolutionaries in 1793, the valley of Roncal asked King Charles IV for two new emblems for its coat of arms: a castle and a greyhound, as a sign of the strength and fidelity with which its inhabitants had behaved during the last war. The valley included in the petition certifications of the services rendered by Count Colomera and the Duke of Osuna, viceroy of Navarre and general of the front of Guipuzcoa and Navarre respectively. In the reports, guarded by the file of the board of the Valley, the Roncal Valley is considered as the only Pyrenean region that had managed to resist the continuous attempts of invasion by the French with its "Captain to war" Pedro Vicente Gambra at the head of the militia of the valley. On March 13, 1798, the king granted the currency. The board of the valley commissions the colonel Raimundo Necochea, outstanding military native of Urzainqui, the design of the new coat of arms. Necochea designed a quartered coat of arms with the old insignia distributed (FIGURE 4). In the first quarter he places the crowned head of a king on a bridge and in the fourth quarter the three rocks, both quarters with a blue background. In the remaining quarters on a red background, he places the recently awarded badges. In the second the greyhound and in the third the castle. As Garriz tells us, the board agrees that each town should dedicate a day to celebrate, with mass and refreshments for the whole town, the act of fixing the coat of arms in the town hall.
Fig. 4 Coat of arms of the Roncal Valley designed by Raimundo Necochea (AGN proceso 024008)
Soon discrepancies arise on this design and on April 15, 1800 in the board celebrated in Roncal, a letter of Enrique Villoch, native of Roncal and merchant in Pamplona is read. The letter says, among other things, that the shield currencies should not be divided in quarters but together in globe, because in quarter some currencies are given more importance than others and it is given to understand that they have different causes. The board decides to commission a study of the topic to Fermín Esteban Sanz López and Justo Galarza Garay, lawyers of the royal courts and natives of Roncal and Pamplona respectively. In the following board celebrated in Urzainqui on June 22, the report of the lawyers is known that comes to give the reason to Enrique Villoch. The board decided that: "the currencies of the coat of arms of the valley should be placed in globe and universe and not with separation of quarters" (Process 024008, AGN, p10). On July 14, 1800, Pedro Vicente Pérez, one of the three representatives of the town council of Uztarroz in the board of the valley on the 22nd, presents a demand before the Royal committee or superior court of the kingdom of Navarre. He states that he does not agreement with the decision taken by the board of the valley. The Royal committee decides to study the topic and in the meantime orders not to modify the coat of arms. On August 29th, the valley defends its new position before the committee , alleging that the currencies that the valley has always had have been within a globe or circle, in spite of being three (Moor's head, bridge and rocks). During the following months, allegations and counter-allegations between the board and Pedro Vicente Pérez followed one after the other. On May 19, 1802, the Royal committee declares that heraldic science recommends that the coat of arms be divided into four quarters as originally decided in the valley and asks the board for a copy of the arms it had before the concession of the castle and the hound and another of the arms that were fixed after the concession with division of quarters (Process 024008, AGN, p51 and following). On November 23, 1802 the valley presented the requested coats of arms: a beautiful engraving by the prestigious Aragonese engraver Matheo González with the old coat of arms (FIGURE 5) and the quartered coat of arms designed by Necochea (SEE FIGURE 4). A few days earlier, on November 8, 1802, Pedro Vicente Pérez had submitted to the Royal committee a report by the King of Arms Juan Félix de Rújula, one of the four Kings of Arms of the Madrid court. The report , instead of clarifying things, created even more confusion. The King of Arms presents a quartered coat of arms, but with a new disposition that the report calls quartered duplicate in reciprocal. Juan Félix de Rújula proposes a quartered shield in which the old arms are placed repeated in the first and third quarters and the new ones also repeated and together in the second and fourth quarters (Process 024008, AGN; p57 and following). Finally, on January 26, 1803, the public prosecutor issues a sentence and declares that the coat of arms should be quartered, as originally designed, according to the drawing presented on November 23, 1802. The valley continued to argue and on July 21 the court ratified the sentence, putting an end to a litigation that had lasted three years, during which time three different designs of the coat of arms for the Roncal valley had been presented.
Fig. 5 Engraving of the Coat of Arms of the Roncal Valley by Matheo González (AGN proceso 024008)
The coat of arms that appears on the flag of Uztarroz (SEE FIGURE 3) is one of the few remaining testimonies of the design in globe or without quartering that proposed the board of the valley. The shield appears without any division and presents the new figures, the hound and the castle, placed above the old arms. It is one of the few surviving testimonies of the heraldic dispute that arose in the valley with the new currencies. The same design can be seen in a coat of arms with a half-cut and split background located at number 18 of the place de San Salvador de Tudela (SEE FIGURE 6). This is the coat of arms of the León De Miguel Capitán family. The third division of the shield presents again the old arms, Moor's head on a bridge and rocks, surmounted by the new currencies a castle and a greyhound.
Fig. 6 Coat of arms of the León De Miguel Capitán family in the place de San Salvador nº 18 in Tudela.
Another interesting coat of arms made at this time is that of the Salvoch Racas family, which can be seen at number 20 of San Saturnino Street in Pamplona. This family was granted the "ejecutoria de hidalguía" in 1803 (Proceso 245607, AGN). The coat of arms presents a strange conformation as Gozton Perez Artuch already warned in the on line publication bizankozarte. It is an oval and quartered coat of arms in which the new Roncalese currencies, castle and hound, appear together in the fourth quarter while the old arms of the valley, the bridge, the Moor's head and the crags, this time placed on the bridge, are in the first quarter. The other two quarters (second and third) are occupied by the arms of the valley of Aezkoa (SEE FIGURE 7). It is a design very close to the one proposed by the King of Arms, which the texts call quartado duplicate in reciproca. However, in this case they are not duplicated in reciproca since the duplications are occupied by the arms of Aezkoa.
Fig. 7 Coat of arms of the Salvoch Racas family at 20 San Saturnino Street, Pamplona.
Sources and bibliography
file of the board of the Roncal Valley. Box 004, folder 27, Modification of the coat of arms, 1797. Box 005, folder 42, Certification of the Duke of Osuna, 1797. Box 005, folder 43, Certification of the Count of Colomera, 1797.
Royal and Generalfile of Navarre (AGN). Processes 024008 and 245607.
Municipalfile of Uztarroz. Books of conference proceedings and accounts; correspondence, inventories.
ANDUEZA PÉREZ, A., El arte al servicio del esplendor de la liturgia: el bordado y los ornamentos sagrados en Navarra, siglos XVI-XVIII, Pamplona, Gobierno de Navarra, 2017.
GÁRRIZ, J., La villa de Garde en el Valle de Roncal, Pamplona, 1923.
PÉREZ ARTUCH, G., The coat of arms of a bidankoztar in Pamplona, in the on line publication bizankozarte of August 28, 2015.
RIEZU BOJ, J. I., "Alarde y bandera de Roncal", Diario de Navarra 27 June 2010, La Semana Navarra, p 13.
RODRÍGUEZ PEÑAS, T., "Flags of the Roncal valley", Banderas núm. 122, bulletin de la Sociedad Española de Vexilología (2012) pp. 47-64.