The Crest We Carry In Our Heart!

El Nostre Escut Sempre Serà Al Nostre Cor!

Our Crest Will Always Be In Our Heart!

A huge part of the history of Futbol Clúb Barcelona is hidden in symbols found inside the Club’s crest – a symbol every player caries on his chest with pride and points to or kisses at every celebration, getting the club’s name high in the footballing world. An organized group is always symbolized and made unique by a few elements. Among the most important of these is the crest.

The Crest We Proudly Carry On Our Chest

So what are these symbols in the crest? Who created it? On what idea has it been based? These are the issues I will be covering in this article…

Barça crests have occasionly been under changes for many circumstances – getting out of style, development of art, politics, uniqueness… But still as long as it is, was, or will be a Barça crest, every real culé would love it, respect it, and carry it in his heart.

The First Years

The moment Don Joan Gamper created FC Barcelona, the club carried its own emblem that would define its unique stance from other clubs. Every player proudly carried it on his shirt. From the very first years when the club was created, the emblem was the coat of arms of the great, wonderful, beautiful city of Barcelona – it was a diamond shape divided into four quarters with a crown and a bat on top and also surrounded by two branches, one of a palm and another of a laurel tree.

Coat Of Arms Of Barcelona - Our First Crest

This would be a way to express the brotherhood between the club and the city, as the club was freshly born and only recently exposed to the people of Catalunya. It was also a great way to psychologically attract many Barcelona natives to join the club and become fans to the club that would later on be counted on as one of the main symbols of Barcelona, Catalunya, and “Catalanism.” This crest would be used for the first eleven years from the birth of this great club to whom we all belong.

1910 – Big Changes to the Crest

The crest garnered great popularity and the love of the fans until 1910. However, shortly after Gamper became the club president and saved the club from a serious financial crisis in 1908, a decision was made by the club board – a very important decision in the club’s history.

Our Second Crest - The First Personalised One

The decision was to give the club its own differentiated crest. Therefore, in 1910 the club held a big competition between all fans and members interested to present their proposals for a club crest. Barcelona had a way of giving its fans the decisions in such big issues – something that the club is unique by these days. The winner was Carles Comamala, who played for the club between 1903 and 1912, and was a medicine student at the time, as well as being a fine artist. Since then, very few changes have been made to the crest, all under different circumstances I have mentioned before – this was the basis of the crest all the players wear on their chests nowadays.  It is a bowl-shaped design in which the two upper quarters maintain St George’s Cross and the red and yellow bars of the original, which are the most representative symbols of Barcelona and Catalunya. The club initials, “FCB,” appear on a strip across the centre and below are the Barça colors – Blaugrana – and a ball. Clearly, the crest shows the main details of the club as well as its connection to the city and the Catalan culture.

Smaller Changes Later On

After the Spanish Civil War, the Catalan language and flag were banned and football clubs were prohibited from using non-Spanish names. These measures led to the club having its name forcibly changed to Club de Fútbol Barcelona and the removal of the Catalan flag from the club shield. FCB was replaced by CFB, to reflect the way the club was forced to use the Spanish version of its name. The dictatorship also obliged the club to remove two of the four bars from the upper righthand quarter, thus excluding the Catalan flag from the crest. On the occasion of the club’s 50th anniversary in 1949, the four bars returned.

Our Third Crest - Under The Franco Reign

 The original letters were not recovered until late 1974, when the crest reverted to the original 1910 design. During the Franco dictatorship, one of the few places that Catalan could be spoken freely was within the club’s stadium. Despite the difficult political situation, CF Barcelona enjoyed considerable success during the 1940s and 1950s. In 1945, with Josep Samitier as coach and players like César, Ramallets and Velasco, they won La Liga for first time since 1929. They added two more titles in 1948 and 1949. In 1949 they also won the first Copa Latina.

Our Fourth Crest - The Current One

Claret Serrahima is the designer who created the present crest style, during 2002, in which the crest became more modern and stylish – the dots between the club initials have been removed and the letters were made smaller and there are much less pointed edges, thus making the crest simpler and more modern in shape. The new design has made the crest easier to reproduce in many formats along with the club’s corporate identity.

To sum all the changes up I will present this picture:

All Our Crests Throughout History

The Main Elements of the Crest:

1)     San Jordi’s Cross. San Jordi is the Patron Saint of Catalunya. His cross and name can be seen everywhere throughout the region. His name symbolizes the Catalan identity as it is a Catalan name. It is said that he was a soldier of the Roman Empire whe became a famous Christian martyr. San Jordi’s Cross is the highest civil award in Catalunya.

San Jordi's Cross - Present in Barca's Crest

2)     Catalan Flag. A legend says that the four red bars were drawn on Wilfred I the Hairy’s (Count of Barcelona) golden shield by King Charles the Bald’s fingers drenched with blood from the Count’s war wounds.

Flag of Catalunya - El Senyera - Present In Barca's Crest

3)     The Club’s Blaugrana Colors. The Club’s famous blue and garnet colors found on the team’s shirts since the club was created. There are many stories behind the origin of the club’s Blaugrana colors; we will present an article later on regarding the many stories about the origins of these colors and the history of the club’s kits.

Blaugrana - The Colors On Our Kits - Present In Our Crest

Visca El Barça i Visca Catalunya!