Last modified: 2015-01-17 by ivan sache
Keywords: guisando | ávila |
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The municipality of Guisando (598 inhabitants in 2009; 3,738 ha; municipal website) is located in the south of Ávila Province, 80 km of Ávila.
Guisando got its name from the Germanic words wis, "wise", and
sanths, "true", indicating a probable Celtic or Visigothic original
settlement. The local people are said to have maintained a specific
appearance, especially women, with clear skin and eyes, red hair, and
a greater height. The writer Camilo Jose Cela (1916-2002, Nobel Prize
in 1989) wrote: "The Guisando woman is Gothic while the Candaleda [the
neighboring village] woman is Moorish". He also wrote: "Guisando is
maybe the small village with the best views in all Spain".
The first settlers of the place seem to have been shepherds, as
indicated by the hamlet named "La Majadilla", from majada, "a
sheepfold". A document of the Ávila Council dated 1274 states that
Guisando had then a path for droves; in his Tratado de montería, King Alfonso XI claims that bears are common in the neighborhood.
Guisando was later incorporated to the big domain of Arenas de las
Ferrerías, subsequently renamed Arenas de San Pedro for the Franciscan monk St. Peter (Pedro) of Alcántara (1499-1562, canonized in 1669). On 26 July 1760, King Charles III granted the title of villa to Guisando, a title symbolized by the pillory erected in the village.
The famous Bulls of Guisando, a set of granite sculptures made in the
2nd century BC by the Vettones Celtiberian tribe, are located on the
today's municipal territory of El Tiemblo. In Don Quixote, Chapter XIV, the Knight of the Grove amazes Don Quixote, claiming among several other exploits that he "lifted the bulls of Guisando".
The Treaty of the Bulls of Guisando was signed on 18 September 1468:
Henry IV of Castile offered the title of Princess of Asturias to
Isabel of Castile, thus ending the civil war in Castile.
Ivan Sache, 9 February 2011
The flag and arms of Guisando (images) are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 30 January 2001 by the Municipal Council, signed on 5 February 2002 by the Mayor, and published on 16 February 2001 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 34, p. 2,821 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular flag, with proportions 2:3, made of a panel gules with a white triangle charged with a green chestnut, whose vertices are the upper and lower hoist and the middle of the flag.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Gules a pillory argent, 2. Argent a mountain vert, grafted in base or a [wild] goat's head sable. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown closed.
Ivan Sache, 4 February 2011
