Catalonia’s coat of arms is that
of the sovereign Count-Kings of Barcelona, four vertical red bars on a golden
background. This is one of the four oldest coats of arms in Europe since the first
document in which it appears is a seal of Count Ramon Berenguer IV in 1150. However,
as a pre-heraldic symbol, the red bars on a yellow background are already found
on the Romanesque tombs of Barcelona’s Count Ramon Berenguer II el Cap d’estopes
(who died in 1082) and his great-grandmother Ermessenda of Carcassonne (who died
in 1058), who was the wife of Count Ramon Borrell I, both of whose tombs can be
found in the cathedral of Girona.
The Barcelona counts, rulers of the entire territory of Catalonia, also came to be the sovereigns of Aragon and the county of Ribagorça by way of marriage between the aforementioned Ramon Berenguer IV the Saint and Queen Petronilla of Aragon. From that period (1137) until 1714, the coat of arms of the counts of Barcelona – the sovereigns of Catalonia, now holding the title of monarchs – was the coat of arms of the so-called Crown of Aragon (originally comprising Catalonia and Roussillon, Aragon, Valencia and the Balearic Islands), which later extended to other regions of the Mediterranean (Provence, Sicily, Sardinia, etc.) and which today accounts for the third quarter section of the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Spain.
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