The arms of Madrid
De plata, un oso de sable apoyado en un madroño de sinople o natural, frutado de gules. Bordura de azur cargada de siete estrellas de plata.
Argent a bear sable leaning against a strawberry tree proper fructed gules within a bordure azure charged with seven estoiles of six points argent
The motto of the city is
Fui sobre agua edificada, mis muros de fuego son.
I was built on water; my walls are of fire.
There are many theories concerning the origin of the name of the city. It is now largely accepted that during the Islamic conquest of the Iberian peninsular in the eighth century, the site near the River Manzanares was named al-Majrit, meaning source of water. This became Majerit, and evolved into the modern spelling of Madrid.
The flag of the larger comunidad de Madrid bears seven stars which represent Ursa Major, the constellation of the Great Bear, and are taken from the arms of the city.
The history of the arms is complicated, and it is not certain whether the two references to a bear are connected. One version is that the town council placed a strawberry tree, madroño, in the arms in order to show that it wished to show the difference between its possessions and those of the church, which used a bear passant.
The Strawberry Tree, Arbutus unedo, is an evergreen shrub or small tree in the family Ericaceae, native to the Mediterranean region of Europe, including the Iberian peninsula, and western France.
By a curious coincidence, "The Garden of Earthly Delights", by Hieronymus Bosch, in El Museo del Prado, Madrid, was originally catalogued in the inventories of the Spanish Crown as "el Cuadro de las fresas", the picture with the strawberries.
In the detail of the painting below, one figure is presented with a strawberry while others pick madroñas from a tree.
There are few example the arms as coloured shields in the city, although they appear on many of the street signs.
Examples of their appearance on a manhole cover and a refuse bin are similar to those found in the town of Albi.
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A carved representation of the arms on the Alcachofa fountain in the Parque del Retiro
The Bear and Ragged Staff, the badge of the Warwick family and today borne by Warwickshire County Council in England, is similar but is not connected.
The bear and the ragged staff were first used by the Beauchamp family, who became Earls of Warwick in 1268.
This inn sign is in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England
There are two French towns which bear similar arms
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| Riez,
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence D'argent au pommier terrassé de sinople, fruité de gueules, adextré d'un ours contourné de sable rampant contre le tronc de l'arbre. Argent an apple tree on a terrace vert fructed gules dexter a bear rampant against the trunk sable |
Arbonne, Pyrénées
Atlantiques d'or au chêne tauzin arraché de sinople senestré d'un ours levé de sable contre le fût de l'arbre , accompagné à dextre de deux clous de sable posés en chevron versé Or a dwarf oak eradicated vert dexter two nails in pile sinister a bear rampant against the trunk of the tree sable |