Flag of Melilla
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Proportion | 2:3 |
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Adopted | 13 March 1995 |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Bandera_de_Melilla.jpg/220px-Bandera_de_Melilla.jpg)
The flag of Melilla, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, consists of a pale blue background with the city's coat of arms in the centre. The flag is adopted on 13 March 1995 when Melilla became an autonomous city of Spain.
The coat of arms of Melilla is the same as the coat of arms of the House of Medina Sidonia , from which it comes directly. Its blazon is as follows: in an azure field, two cauldrons checkered in gold and gules , surrounded by seven serpents in sinople , placed on a pole. Border of the royal arms of Castile and Leon , of nine pieces of gules, with castles of gold, alternating, with nine pieces of silver with lions of gules. The shield is topped with a ducal crown , which dominates a figure representing Guzmán el Bueno , in the act of throwing a dagger, from the castle of Tarifa . It is supported by the columns of the Strait of Hercules , with the inscription Non Plus Ultra . At the foot of the shield, but outside of it, appears a Dragon in sinople. On the crest appears a winged ribbon with the motto Praeferre Patriam Liberis Parentem Decet (A father must put his country before his children).