A while back I found an awesome book that showed the coats-of-arms of most of the towns and villages of Bizkaia. Each town was given a different page, with a drawing of the escudo and some information about the town. I’d always hoped to find something similar for the other provinces, but was never able to. These days, though, if it’s in a book, it’s very likely to be online as well. Thus, it should come as no surprise that there are lists of the municipalities of the various provinces and their heraldry, and maybe the best site for this is Wikipedia.
They have different sections for the coats-of-arms of the towns of Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, Araba, Nafarroa, and, lumped together with other provinces of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Iparralde — the French Basque Country.
I imagine these aren’t complete, but they do give a very nice visual display of the towns and villages of the Basque Country. I think it would be great to also have something about the origins of each individual coat-of-arms, but that is asking a lot.
There are versions of these on the Spanish version of Wikipedia as well, which do give more detail, such as the actual description of the coat-of-arms. For example, see this page for Bizkaia and this one for Nafarroa.
I was in Spain 2 years ago and went to the town of Munarriz and wanted to see what the coat of arms looks like. Would you happen to know where I can look? It is close to Pamplona, a couple of hours from there. Thanks so much!
I couldn’t find one of Munarriz itself, but this page has some coat-of-arms for houses in Munarriz: http://www.euskomedia.org/aunamendi/82845/136761#0
Maybe this is it: http://www.navarchivo.com/index.php/es/localidades/estella/munarriz-goni
Wow. Great site. I am Irish and doing heavy research on the Milesian links between Ancient Iberia and Ancient Ireland(Hibernia). Hibernia/Iberia, gotta be a link their somewhere. Recent genetic analysis which is really blossoming in Ireland is pointing to the fact that Ireland and the Brythonic part of England (Wales and Cornwall) and Scotland as well as Brittany have heavy links to the previous native peoples of Iberia which has been basically wiped away except in the Basque Country…what a unique and interesting people…must be where the Irish get their nationalism from 🙂 GO SOVEREIGNTY!!! 🙂
Great advice about looking on Spanish Wiki for the Coat of Arms info which is a treasure trove of family line symbolism…I didn’t think about that so thanks heaps! English Wiki pages are not quote there yet when it comes to other countries which I suppose is understandable, but it doesn’t instantly occur to look closer to the native source…what an idiot I am 🙂
…now with a little help from Google Translate etc… I will be able to read the Spanish 😛
I have heard it said more than once by the sort of people who know these things that all Basques from originally Basque families are considered noble and by definition have the right to a coat of arms. But I have never found any confirmation of this. Can you corroborate?