The coat of arms

Coat of arms

A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 of Cantabria

Cantabria

Cantabria is a Spanish historical region and autonomous community with Santander as its capital city. It is bordered on the east by the Basque Autonomous Community , on the south by Castile and León , on the west by the Principality of Asturias, and on the north by the Cantabrian Sea.Cantabria...

has a rectangular shield, round in base (also called Spanish shield in heraldry

Heraldry

Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...

) and the field is party en fess

Fess

In heraldry, a fess or fesse is a charge on a coat of arms that takes the form of a band running horizontally across the centre of the shield. Writers disagree in how much of the shield's surface is to be covered by a fess or other ordinary, ranging from one-fifth to one-third...

. In field azure

Azure

In heraldry, azure is the tincture with the colour blue, and belongs to the class of tinctures called "colours". In engraving, it is sometimes depicted as a region of horizontal lines or else marked with either az. or b. as an abbreviation....

, a tower or

Or (heraldry)

In heraldry, Or is the tincture of gold and, together with argent , belongs to the class of light tinctures called "metals". In engravings and line drawings, it may be represented using a field of evenly spaced dots...

 crenellated and masoned, port and windows azure, to its right a ship in natural colours that with its bow has broken a chain going from the tower to the dexter flank of the shield. At the base, sea waves argent

Argent

In heraldry, argent is the tincture of silver, and belongs to the class of light tinctures, called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it...

 and azure, all surmounted in chief by two male heads, severed and haloed. In field gules

Gules

In heraldry, gules is the tincture with the colour red, and belongs to the class of dark tinctures called "colours". In engraving, it is sometimes depicted as a region of vertical lines or else marked with gu. as an abbreviation....

, a disc-shaped stele

Stele

A stele , also stela , is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected for funerals or commemorative purposes, most usually decorated with the names and titles of the deceased or living — inscribed, carved in relief , or painted onto the slab...

 with geometric ornaments of the kind of the Cantabrian steles of Barros or Lombera.
The helm is a closed royal crown, a circle of jeweled gold, made up of eight rossettes in the shape of acanthus leaves, only five visible, interpolated with pearls, and with halrf-arches topped with pearls raising from each leaf and converging in an orb azure, with submeridian and equator or, topped with cross or. The crown, covered in gules .

The coat of arms was designed by a commission of experts made up of members of the Royal Academy of History. After long debates they decided to have two differentiated parts: one historical and hagiographic, and the other characteristical.

The historic part of the first field shows the emblem of the conquest of Seville

Seville

Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...

 by Cantabrian marines in 1248, with the tower (representing the Torre del Oro

Torre del Oro

The Torre del Oro is a dodecagonal military watchtower in Seville, southern Spain, built by the Almohad dynasty in order to control access to Seville via the Guadalquivir river....

) and the ship breaking the chains that blocked the way through the river Guadalquivir

Guadalquivir

The Guadalquivir is the fifth longest river in the Iberian peninsula and the second longest river to be its whole length in Spain. The Guadalquivir is 657 kilometers long and drains an area of about 58,000 square kilometers...

. It symbolizes the eight centuries of activity that characterised the maritime Cantabria. The hagiographic references consist in the heads of the martyr saints Emeterius and Celedonius

Emeterius and Celedonius

Saints Emeterius and Celedonius are venerated as saints by the Catholic Church. Two Roman legionaries , they were martyred for their faith around 300...

, representing the unity of the territory under their patronship.

The second field shows the image of one of the most important legates left by the primitive people that inhabited the region: the giant steles of the Cantabri. The Stele of Barros (discovered in the town of the same name) was taken as model. The official coat of arms of Cantabria completes with the inclusion of the Spanish royal crown.