Motifs in Spain's Official Banner

With the distinguished color combination of red and yellow, Spain's banner is known to have the most lively and catchy symbol and pattern among other state flags. In fact, early Spanish individual seven spun stories related to the colors of the banner. Old legends claim that the bright colors of the banner were derived from the abstraction of a bullfight arena, wherein red represented the blood of the bullfighter and yellow viewed as the sand of the arena. Of course, these stories have no basis for the color figure of the Spanish banner was patterned after the coat of arms of King Ferdinand.

Setting urban narrative aside, the current state banner of Spain featured three horizontal bands: red on the top and bottom and yellow in the middle. The coat of arms figure, additionally, included the royal zeal framed by Pillars of Hercules, thus representing Ceuta and Gibraltar. Before the current figure was finally adopted, the Spanish banner also went through numerous design changes over the history of the country. For instance, the original figures of Catholic monarchy shield and eagle were affirmed during Franco's dictatorship. These were traduced, however, in 1981, leaving the current color figure of red and yellow with the crowned arms.