The coat of arms of Medellín is the heraldic emblem that represents the Colombian city of Medellín, capital of the department of Antioquia. It has its origin in the concession of its use by King Charles II of Spain by means of the Royal Decree given in Madrid on March 31, 1678. The escutcheon also recalled in some of its elements the ancient coat of arms of the Spanish town of Medellín, in Extremadura, from which the city takes its name.
The coat of arms, together with the flag and the anthem, are recognized as official symbols of the municipality of Medellín according to Decree No. 151 of February 20, 2002. In addition, the escutcheon as a symbol of the city is part of the institutional image of the municipal administration, which is why it is present in ceremonial acts, on official stationery, in street furniture or in public works, although there are different stylistic versions between the City Hall and the Municipal council.
The escutcheon was also adopted by other entities such as the Archdiocese of Medellín, differentiated by the archbishop's cross on the seal and the name of the archdiocese as the motto. Likewise, the arms of the city are also present in the first quarter of the emblem of the University of Medellín.
History On March 2, 1616, the visitor Francisco de Herrera Campuzano established the "Poblado de San Lorenzo" (Spanish for "Village of San Lorenzo") in the south of the Aburrá Valley, where El Poblado Park is today, with the function of serving as a shelter for the indigenous people. Over time, the Aburrá Valley became a pantry to supply the workers of the gold mines located in the northeast of the Antioquia Province. In addition, due to its strategic position, between the mining region and the city of Antioquia, which at that time was the capital of the province, and due to the increase in population, the construction of a new town was arranged, since the indigenous reservation of San Lorenzo was discarded.The indigenous reservation known as "El Poblado de San Lorenzo" was discarded because the laws of racial segregation prevented mestizos and mulattos from settling in the reservations, and also because of the precarious living conditions.
Finally, in 1646, the new settlement was established in the angle formed by the Medellín River (formerly Aburrá) and the Santa Elena stream, a place called Sitio de Aná by the natives and Aguasal by the Spaniards. In 1649, the new hamlet began to be called Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de Aná (Spanish for "Our Lady of Candle of Aná"), a name that arose after the construction of the first church of walls and tiles consecrated to the Virgin of Candelaria.
Since 1670, the inhabitants of the town of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de Aná began to want a town council, which implied administrative autonomy from the city of Antioquia. On March 20, 1671, Francisco de Montoya y Salazar, governor of the province, decreed the foundation of the town in the Sitio de Aná. This foundation did not have the effect that a royal decree could have, and the inhabitants of the city of Antioquia opposed it, as they sensed that their preponderant role would be diminished with the establishment of that village as a town, for which reason they sought confirmation of the foundation through a royal concession. After overcoming various vicissitudes, finally in 1675 came the Royal Certificate of Foundation signed by the Queen Regent, Doña Mariana of Austria on behalf of her son, Charles II, and dated November 22, 1674. On November 2, 1675, the governor and captain general of the Province of Antioquia, Miguel de Aguinaga y Mendigoitía, formally proclaimed the creation of the Villa de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de Medellín (Spanish for "Town of Our Lady of Candles of Medellín"). The name Medellín was given in homage to Don Pedro Portocarrero y Aragón,Pedro Portocarrero, Folch de Aragón y Córdoba, Count of Medellín, Marquis of Villa Real, Duke of Camiña, Major Reporter of the Royal House of Castile, Member of the King's Chamber and President of the Council of the Indies (titles he held at that time according to José Antonio Benítez, official scribe of Antioquia from the late 18th to the mid-19th century). Count of Medellín in Extremadura, and then president of the Council of the Indies, for the interest he took in approving the erection of the new Town.
On June 25, 1676, Governor Miguel de Aguinaga informed the crown about the compliance with the Royal Decree and how the erection was carried out. Likewise, on June 24, 1676, the town council of the new town sent a report to His Majesty on the same subject, and after submitting several reports and making several requests, they referred to the coat of arms in the following terms:
The document continues with a detailed description of the sanitation of the land, the mention of the Aburrá River (today the Medellín River), the richness of its minerals, the abundance of livestock and fruits of the land, the population at that time of approximately 4,000 souls and commerce. Later on about the Planta de Villa where they inform and describe the characteristics of the town, they say:
And further on they say;
Thus, the deep-rootedness and fervor that they had for this Marian devotion became evident.
After all this documentation sent to the crown, on February 9, 1678, the Council of the Indies agreed to grant the new town the same arms of Medellín Extremadura, also ratified the title of town and prohibited for 10 years, that the inhabitants of the city of Antioquia moved to the Villa de la Candelaria, thus avoiding that the city remained uninhabited.
The document refers in the following terms:
However, the use of this escutcheon was brief, since a new Royal Decree granted by King Charles II of Spain and given in Madrid on March 31, 1678, granted a new coat of arms that would be definitive:
The first coat of arms is still mentioned by Oidor Juan Antonio Mon y Velarde in the constitution he gave to the Town Council of Medellín in which he summarizes the genesis of the town and in which he says: "The town was also granted the right to use the same arms, privileges, extensions and pre-eminences that the town of Medellín enjoys in the Province of Extremadura in the kingdoms of Spain, but since the coat of arms of the Royal Decree has not been requested, the arms referred to therein have not been requested".
But with the passage of time this coat of arms was completely forgotten. Meanwhile, the Villa de la Candelaria de Medellín (Spanish for "Town of the Candelaria of Medellín") was acquiring greater importance being declared "City" in 1813 and designated capital of the province in 1826, displacing the city of Antioquia, the same that opposed its raising to town.
Recovery of the heraldic memory In 1952, the historian and heraldist Enrique Ortega Ricaurte, at that time director of the National Archive of Colombia, published a book titled "Colombian Heraldry" that collects with sober drawings all the coats of arms of the cities of the country, transcribing for each one of them, the royal dispositions or official documents by means of which they were granted. In the chapter referring to Medellín, he publishes the definitive coat of arms (that is, the current one), but does not transcribe the Royal Decree that granted it; instead, there is a transcription of the document from the Council of the Indies on the "Privilege of Arms".
It was this document that motivated the historian Ortega to carry out an investigation to clarify historically and really which were the true arms that correspond to the city of Medellín, to finally publish the results in a future second edition of his work. At the beginning of 1956 he contacted his friend Fabio Lozano y Lozano, resident in Madrid (Spain), to find out about the primitive coat of arms of the Villa de Medellín. Lozano went to the International Institute of Heraldry and Genealogy in Madrid, entity that proceeded to carry out the investigation, which was directed by the Chronicler of Arms Vicente de Cadenas y Vicent, who was also the director and founder of that Institute.
During the course of the investigation, Vicente de Cadenas y Vicent kept Fabio Lozano informed of the details, who in turn informed Ortega of the progress of the investigations. By April of that same year the research was finished with notarial certification, a painting of the coat of arms and analogies, at a cost of 1,000 pesetas, or 25 dollars at the time. After trying unsuccessfully to get entities such as the Colombian Academy of History or the Cultural Extension of the Government of Antioquia to buy the research documents, it was finally Martín del Corral from Medellín who acquired them, and after a year they arrived in the city, brought personally by Fabio Lozano. In summary, the documentation suggests that the true coat of arms of Medellín is the same as that of its Extremadura counterpart, since this research is based on the document issued by the Council of the Indies on February 9, 1678, on "Privilege of Arms".
The text of the documentation refers in the following terms:
Once Martín del Corral had the documents in his possession and after analyzing them, he sent them to the Mayor of Medellín together with the official letter G 57–100 in which he expressed his concerns about what the investigation assures. Consequently, the then Mayor José Gutiérrez Gómez, by means of official letter 271 of July 6, 1957, asked the Antioquian Academy of History to study the problem.
For this reason the Academy held an extraordinary meeting and after several historical considerations and special confrontations,The extraordinary meeting of the Antioquia Academy of History was chaired by Emilio Robledo, president of the Academy, and was attended by Luis mountain chain H., Pbro. Jesús Mejía Escobar, Luis Mesa Villa, Carlos Arturo Jaramillo, Abraham González, Enrique Echavarría, José Solís Moncada and as a special invitation of Robledo, the writer Hernán Escobar Escobar Escobar. issued, on July 10 of the same year, a decision that in synthesis emphasizes that the coat of arms should not be changed, considering it authentic in accordance with the Royal Decree and worthy of all compliance; They also emphasize that, according to volume 34 of the Enciclopedia Espasa, it is observed that the coat of arms of the Medellín Extremadura has aesthetic differences with the model sent, but fundamentally they note that the image of the Virgin is not the Purification —also called Virgin of Candelaria— as Cadenas assures, but the Annunciation. The ruling, signed by the president of the academy, was sent to the Mayor in the following terms: