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Ricote (Municipality, Region of Murcia, Spain)

Last modified: 2016-04-25 by ivan sache
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[Flag]

Flag of Ricote - Image by Ivan Sache, 9 May 2015


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Presentation of Ricote

The municipality of Ricote (1,398 inhabitants in 2014; 14,400 ha; municipal website) is located in the center of the Region of Murcia.

Ricote was first documented in Moorish chronicles dated 826, as the castle of Al-Sujayrat / Al Sujur (lit., "rocky place"). In 1228, Ibn Hud initiated in the castle of Ricote the conquest of the Kingdom of Murcia from the Almohads. Muhammad Abu Bakrb Ahmad al-Qarmuti, aka al- Raquti or al-Mursi, born in Ricote, organized in Murcia a prestigious center of culture "without borders or beliefs"; King Alfonso X protected him until the Mudéjar revolt that forced him to emigrate to Granada, where he died.
Granted to Enrique Pérez de Arana after the incorporation of the Kingdom of Murcia to Castile in 1243, the Ricote valley was transferred in 1281 by Sancho IV to the Order of St. James, which established in 1285 a powerful commandery in Ricote.

Ivan Sache, 9 May 2015


Symbols of Ricote

The flag of Ricote is prescribed by a Decree adopted on 9 December 1983 by the Municipal Council, signed on 16 December 1983 by the Mayor, and published on 3 January 1984 in the official gazette of the Region of Murcia, No. 2, p. 16 (text).
The flag is not described in the Decree.

The regulation on the creation and use of the flag of Ricote is prescribed by a Decree adopted on 6 March 1984 by the Municipal Council and published on 15 March 1984 in the official gazette of the Region of Murcia, No. 63, p. 790 (text). The flag does not appear to have been validated by the Government of the Region of Murcia.
The flag is not described in the Decree.

The flag (photo, photo, photo, photo) is horizontally divided green-white-blue (1:2:1) with the municipal coat of arm in the middle.
Designed in 1983 by Luis Lisón Hernández, the flag was unveiled on 19 January 1984.
A document dated 1568 states that the Ricote militia that contributed to the seizure of Granada in 1492 used a white flag charged in the middle with the coat of arms of the town.
[Municipal website]

The coat of arms of Ricote is prescribed by Royal Decree No. 2,835, adopted on 12 November 1976 and published on 9 December 1976 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 295, pp. 21,568-21,569 (text).
The coat of arms is described as follows:

Coat of arms: Or a cross of St. James gules surrounded by two pines vert. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.

n the Middle Ages, Ricote used a white seal charged with a red Cross of St. James and surrounded by the writing "RICOTE". After the suppression of the feudal system, these arms were forgotten.
The municipality adopted on 13 October 1919 a brand new coat of arms, "Quarterly, 1. A Cross of St. James, 2. A castle, 3. A warrior, 4. A key." The tinctures of the arms are still a matter of speculation. This coat of arms was also forgotten, so that the Municipal Council commissioned the Royal Chronicler of Arms, Vicente de Cárdenas y Vicent, to design new arms.
[Municipal website]

The Royal Academy of History validated the proposed arms, "simple and well-organized". The Cross of St. James recalls that Ricote was one of the biggest commanderies of the Order in Murcia. The pines recall the local, dense pinewoods, which were suppressed in the 18th century.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 1978, 185: 3, 594]

Ivan Sache, 9 May 2015