La Rioja (Spain)

Logroño Province

Last modified: 2000-01-21 by santiago dotor
Keywords: spain | la rioja | rioja | logroño |
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Colours according to the 1985 Manual de Identidad Corporativa (Corporate Identity Handbook)
by António Martins

• Description
• Logroño Province

See also:

• Spain

I checked in the SEV site that the top stripe of the flag of La Rioja is simply red, and not that winey red I used.

Jorge Candeias, 21 July 1998

Are you quite sure? I recall having read something about the upper stripe standing for the famous Rioja wine.

António Martins, 2 October 1998

The official flag has an upper red stripe (symbolizing Castile). White is for the region. Green is for the wine (the grapes). Yellow is for the future. The use of purple in the upper part is frequent, but I believe that it does not stand for the wine, but for the legend that purple was the colour of the Castilian Comuneros (participants in a nationalist castilian revolt in the XVI century, who were defeated by the Crown). Rioja wine is red but a very dark shade (almost black). Red is used traditionally to mean wine or bloth, and perhaps somebody gave this meaning, but wrongly.

Until recently an autonomist party existed in the region and had seats in the regional parliament (and participated in the regional government). I don't remember their flag.

I made a deep study of the history of Rioja region in the V-VII centuries, and at that time it was clear that many people was ethnically Basque but Latinized (Calagurris-Calahorra was the main Basque city in the Roman period). The autonomous community was created partly because of this different origin, though Riojans today have no longer ethnical differences with Castilians. There also is a Basque Rioja (in Álava province) which perhaps is more different. Rioja wine is very charasterictic but wine and gastronomy seems not enough basis for a separate autonomous community.

Jaume Ollé, 3 October 1998

According to Calvo and Grávalos 1983, the red stripe certainly intends to be Rioja red wine coloured, ie. dark red.

Santiago Dotor, 5 October 1998

Now I'm confused... What would that be? Red, morado (purple), black or punzo (dark red)?

António Martins, 14 October 1998

I think it should be dark red. Certainly not purple/morado since it has nothing to do with the colour of Castile or Leon - by the way the official colours in the Castile and Leon coat-of-arms and flag are gules (ie. red) for Castile and purpure (ie. purple) for Leon - though it may be argued the origin of this purple colour is that in Spain, in the Middle Ages, red (particularly dark red, but in heraldry this is irrelevant, no such thing as "dark gules") and purple were equivalent - this seems to be the origin of the popular belief about the pendón morado de Castilla (purple pennant of Castile) which in turn originated the purple strip in the Spanish Republican flag. And certainly not black. You can find official information at the La Rioja Government Official Website (no information on the flag though - and the guys who designed the web page seem to have used a regular red for the background logo...).

Santiago Dotor, 14 October 1998

According to the Act of adoption of Rioja's flag passed by the Diputación Provincial (provincial council) on 14th August 1979, the meaning of the colours is the following:

• white: light
• yellow: fertility
• red: vineyard
• green: vegetable garden

Jaume Ollé, 19 December 1998

Colours of the flag as they appear in the Manual de Identidad Corporativa (Corporate Identity Handbook) of 1985:

• Red: Pantone Warm Red
• Green: Pantone 354
• Yellow: Pantone 109

Antonio Gutiérrez, 20 July 1999

António Martins asked, "Since in Spanish monoprovincial regions the provincial and regional competences are merged into one and the same entity is it correct to say this is the flag of Logroño province?".

The province of Logroño changed officially its name to province of La Rioja several years ago (as did Oviedo -> Asturias and Santander -> Cantabria). Prior to the establishment of Autonomous Communities, the province of Logroño had another flag (rather it was the flag of the Diputación Provincial de Logroño [provincial council]). Once the Autonomous Community of La Rioja was established, the Diputación Provincial ceased to exist and its competences were assumed by the Autonomous Community, and the provincial flag was sustituted by the current one.

Antonio Gutiérrez, 16 September 1999