Pennon of the Conquest
Encyclopedia
The Pennon of the Conquest ' onMouseout='HidePop("77673")' href="/topics/Catalan_language">Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

: Penó de la Conquesta) is the flag raised by the Moors
Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...

 of Valencia, Spain, on September 28, 1238 on the tower of Alī-Bufāt, later called Torre del Temple, to indicate their surrender to the troops of king James I of Aragon
James I of Aragon
James I the Conqueror was the King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276...

. We know about this episode from the quote entered by the king himself in his Chronicle: "We were in the riverbed, between the gardens and the tower; and when we saw our flag upon the tower, we dismounted from our horse, and heading eastwards we cried from our eyes and kissed the earth for the great mercy God had made to us".

The Pennon is made of three pieces of white cloth (which the passage of time has turned into yellowish) sewed together, cut to give the flag a torus-shaped appearance, upon which 4 red stripes have been painted. It is about 2 m long and on top an epigraph reads año 1238 ("year 1238"). After the Conquest of Valencia it was considered a relic
Relic
In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial...

 and was kept by order of James I of Aragon
James I of Aragon
James I the Conqueror was the King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276...

 in the Church at Saint Vincent Hospital up to the 19th century, when it was transferred to its current location in the City Hall of Valencia, Spain.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK