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Heraldica Española - Spanish Civic Heraldry
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CATALUNYA (Catalonia)
Origin/meaning:
Catalonia's coat of arms is that of the sovereign Count-Kings of Barcelona, four vertical red bars on a golden background. This is one of the oldest coats of arms in Europe since the first document in which it appears is a seal of Count Ramon Berenguer IV in 1150. However, as a pre-heraldic symbol, the red bars on a yellow background are already found on the Romanesque tombs of Barcelona's Count Ramon Berenguer II el Cap d'estopes (who died in 1082) and his great-grandmother Ermessenda of Carcassonne (who died in 1058), who was the wife of Count Ramon Borrell I, both of whose tombs can be found in the cathedral of Girona.
The Barcelona counts, rulers of the entire territory of Catalonia, also came to be the sovereigns of Aragon and the county of Ribagorça by way of marriage between the aforementioned Ramon Berenguer IV the Saint and Queen Petronilla of Aragon. From that period (1137) until 1714, the coat of arms of the counts of Barcelona - the sovereigns of Catalonia, now holding the title of monarchs - was the coat of arms of the so-called Crown of Aragon (originally comprising Catalonia and Roussillon, Aragon, Valencia and the Balearic Islands), which later extended to other regions of the Mediterranean (Provence, Sicily, Sardinia, etc.) and which today accounts for the third quarter section of the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Spain.
There is also a legend about the history of the arms:
It is said that once the count of Barcelona was deadly wounded in a battle against the Moor-invaders. Knowing he would die, he did not want to die without his personal colours, as he had lost his shield during the battle. So he took a simple yellow shield, "dipped" his four fingers in his wound and painted the four columns on the yellow shield.
In another story it is not the Count of Barcelona, but Louis, King of France, who used his fingers to make the arms with the blood of the King of Catalunya "Guifrè el Pilós".
The four pales are also part of the arms of Barcelona city (and from there in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico), Giona city, the Spanish provinces of Baleares and Valencia, the French County of Ariège and the former North Catalonia, later Roussillon (France), as well as many other municipalities in the North-East part of Spain.
Literature : de Cadenas, A. A. and de Cadenas, V. : Heraldica de las comunidades autonomas y de las capitales de provincia. Hidalguia, Madrid, 1985; http://www10.gencat.net/gencat/AppJava/en/catalunya/simbols/escut.jsp
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