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image posted by Vanja Poposki in I Love Flags, 23 June 2012
Source:
http://www.fedoma.go.cr/12-noticias/77-proceso-historico-bandera-gobierno-local-de-grecia
See also:
The municipality of Grecia (78,898 inhabitants in 2011; 39,572 ha), located
20 km north-west of Alajuela, forms Canton No. 3 of Alajuela Province. The
canton is divided in eight districts: Grecia, San Isidro, San José, San Roque,
Tacares, Río Cuarto, Puente de Piedra, and Bolívar.
Grecia was awarded on 21
August 1989 the title of "Cleanest Town in Latin America", granted by the Latin
American Chapter of the International Union of Municipalities.
The origin
of the name of Grecia is disputed, although credited to Juan Lara Zamora. A
first theory claims that the villagers Lara Zamora proposed in 1826 to name the
village as a tribute the Greece, which had obtained its independence from the
Ottoman Empire in 1821. A second, less romantic theory, claims that Lara Zamora
owned an estate named Grecia, whose name was subsequently adopted to designate
the village.
Grecia was established, as a village, by Decree No. 69,
adopted on 27 April 1838 in Heredia by the Constituent Assembly. This was the
result of petition No. 21 sent on 26 October 1828 by the villagers to the
municipality of San Juan Nepomuceno de Alajuela. At the time, Grecia counted
1,100 inhabitants living in 176 houses. The villagers were allowed to erect a
church, which proved to be very difficult. A small, straw-roofed and walled
oratory was built in 1839, replaced in 1847 by another, wooden-walled and
straw-roofed chapel. The sanctuary, dedicated to Our Lady of the Mercy, was
eventually consecrated on 22 January 1847. The parish was officially registered
on 8 August 1854, but the chapel was partially destroyed by a blaze in 1860. The
masoned church erected in 1864 was suppressed in 1888 by an earthquake. This
last event convinced the villagers to rebuild the church with a metallic
structure that would better resist natural damages. With the support of Bishop
Bernardo Augusto Thiel, the steel skeleton of the new church was ordered in 1890
at a Belgian steelwork. Steel elements shipped to Puerto Limón in October 1892
were transported by train to Alajuela, and, finally, by oxen-driven carts to
Grecia. The building of the church was completed in 1906, for a cost of 160,000
golden pesos.
Coffee cultivation was initiated between 1826 and 183,
attracting even more colonists from Barva, Santo Domingo and Heredia. Income
obtained from coffee allowed the farmers to import from Manchester or the USA
modern hydraulic presses required to process sugarcane. The Victoria press
established in Grecia in 1886 /1887 was the most modern, and for long the only
one in Costa Rica. The Fernández Hidalgo family purchased the press in New York
and hired Belisario Zayas-Bazán Agüero, a Cuban expert in mechanics established
in Costa Rica, who had learned the modern techniques of cane processing in
Louisiana and Cuba. In 1906, Celina Fernández Brealy, the heiress of the
Fernández Hidalgo family, sold the estate to the company owned by Guillermo
Niehaus, a colonist of German origin. The estate was confiscated in 1941 by the
government as a measure of retaliation against Germany. The Victoria Industrial
and Agricultural Cooperative was established on 12 October 1943 by 20 members;
the cooperative, still owner of the estate, is now the oldest in the country,
with 2,925 members.
The canton of Grecia was established on 24 July 1867,
then including the territories of Naranja, Alfaro Ruiz, Valverde Vega and San
Carlos. In 1882, the canton was increased with a huge territory (4,000 sq. km)
known as the Guatuso Plain, made of the today's territories of Upala, Los Chiles
and Guatuso. With an area of 7,40 sq. km the canton of Grecia formed than 80% of
the Alajuela Province. Grecia was granted the title of "ciudad" on 6 August
1903.
http://www.grecia.go.cr/index.php/nuestra-municipalidad/resena-historica -
History of Grecia by Luis Castrillo, municipal website
The flag of Grecia
is horizontally divided blue-white-green (1:2:1). Right yellow stars are placed
on two rows of four each in the white stripe. Along the hoist is placed a white
trapezoid charged with a yellow triangle bordered in blue. The flag was adopted
on 10 December 2012 by the Municipal Council (5 approved it while 2 rejected
it), in spite of the opposition of Mayor Harry González. The Mayor complained
that the citizens had not been associated to the selection process, which had
started 18 months before. He added that he was not aware of any other flag
selected without a public contest. However, the Mayor accepted the majority's
decision and did not veto the proposal.
http://www.radio16.com/2012/12/10/la-grecia-de-costa-rica-ya-tiene-bandera-oficial/
- Radio 16, 10 November 2012
The selection process was launched by the
Municipal Councillor Jorge Arturo Gómez Valverde, also President of the Culture
Commission who had noticed that the traditional blue-white flag was in very bad
state. Dr. Maroto, commissioned to draft the new flag, found out that no
agreement on an official flag could have been obtained for the last 40 years. It
was decided to open a public contest to get a new flag that would keep the blue
and white colours; in spite of several visits to schools and other institutes to
promote the project, no proposal was ever submitted within 18 months.
Accordingly, the Municipal Council decided to adopt Dr. Maroto's proposal.
The upper, celestial blue stripe represents the peaceful and eternal sky,
God, tranquility and friendship. The middle, white stripe represents peace,
transparency and spirituality. The eight stars represent the eight districts
forming the canton; the stars are five-pointed to represent the five continents.
Furthermore, the stars are characterized by the Pythagorean societies as the
gate to higher science. Golden yellow is a symbol of power, purity, abundance,
resources, strength. The two white arms surrounding the triangle represent love
that preserves the three values, symbolized by the triangle: liberty, progress
and solidarity. As well as the pyramids in East and everywhere in the world, the
triangles preserve spirituality, and even more. The lower, lemon green stripe
represents two historical crops: sugarcane and coffee, and, more generally, the
natural environment. Green is a symbol of leisure and freshness. The triangles
represent historical elements, such as humanism, and three equal, linear
concepts linked to spiritual values: body, mind and spirit. The bigger, blue
triangle, represents the son of God made a human being. The smaller, lower
triangle represents the woman, protected by God in the Holy Ghost. The eight
stars are of the same colour and blood as the woman. The triangle are elements
of the "icon" of the municipality, I guess, the parish church.
http://www.fedoma.go.cr/12-noticias/77-proceso-historico-bandera-gobierno-local-de-grecia
- Text by Jorge Arturo Gómez Valverde - website of the Western Federation of
Alajuela Municipalities
Ivan Sache, 23 July 2014
It is mentioned that the "traditional blue-white flag" had been in a very bad
state. Do we know this blue-white flag?
Is that description official, as I didn't see it at Radio16, and the white
stripe in our image doesn't seem quite that wide. There's also no mention of the
staggering of the stars.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 20 August 2014
a-04.gif)
image contributed by Fred Drews, 23 March 2006