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Last modified: 2019-01-13 by ivan sache
Keywords: miranda de ebro | ayuelas | guinicio | montañana |
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Flag of Miranda de Ebro - Image from the Escudos y Banderas de la Provincia de Burgos website, 15 February 2014
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The municipality of Miranda de Ebro (41,365 inhabitants in 2012, therefore the 2nd most populous town in the province; 10,133 ha; municipal website) is located in the northeast of the Province of Burgos, on the border with La Rioja and Álava province, 90 km from Burgos and 30 km from Vitoria. The municipality is made of the town of Miranda de Ebro and of the villages of Ayuelas (57 inh.), Guinicio (27 inh.), Ircio (81 inh.), Montañana (15 inh.), Orón (255 inh.) and Suzana (76 inh.).
Miranda de Ebro is located on river Ebro, at a strategic location on
the borders of Castile, La Rioja and the Basque Country. The valley was crossed by an important Roman way; remains of Roman settlements have been found in Carbiana, Arce-Mirapérez, Ircio and Revenga.
Miranda de Ebro was chartered in 1099 by Alfonso X. All goods shipped
to or from the Basque Country, Burgos and La Rioja had to cross the
bridge over river Ebro, which increased the wealth of the town. On 27
November 1254, Alfonso X the Wise granted to Miranda del Ebro a May
Fair (Feria de Mayo). Alfonso XI granted on 2 April 1332 to Vitoria
and Miranda del Ebro a second fair, originally called Lent Fair and
subsequently renamed Angel Fair and March Fair. Granting fairs was a
convenient means to fix populations and to attract traders in
strategic places.
In the last third of the 14th century, the defensive role of Miranda
del Ebro was increased. Count Tollo of Biscay was granted in 1358 the Pillory Hill by the Bishop of Calahorra. In 1449, Pedro Sarmiento, Count of Salinas decided to build there a fortress to control salt trade; an army sent from Burgos seized the town and stopped the erection of the fortress. A few years later, Diego Sarmiento, Pedro's
son, transformed the old St. Mary church into a fortress, making
stables with the chapel and desecrating graves to establish the
foundations of the fortress. A sentence of the Court of Valladolid transferred in 1772 the fortress to the Royal Domain. Progressively ruined, the fortress was eventually restored in 2004.
Christians and Jews lived together in the town until the expelling of
the Jews from Spain by the Catholic Monarchs and the transformation of
the synagogue into the Town Hall. The 16th century was the Gilded Age
for arts in Miranda de Ebro, then a focus of Romanesque sculpture.
Pedro López de Gámiz and his followers maintained for centuries the artistic fame of the town.
After a flood by river Ebro on 19-21 June 1775, several buildings of
the town were suppressed, including the old Town Hall and the bridge,
which had lost five of its seven arches. Francisco Alejo de Aranguren,
an architect from La Rioja, built in neo-classic style a new bridge,
inaugurated in 1780; together with Santos Ángel de Ochandátegui, he designed the new Town Hall, the project being revised in 1778 by Ventura Rodríguez, architect of the Council of Castile.
Miranda de Ebro was involved in the Carlist Wars at the end of the
19th century. The Carlist general Carnicer was sentenced to death in
the town. During the rebellion of the Segovia Regiment, stationed in
Miranda de Ebro, Rafael Ceballos Escalera, General in Chief of the
North Armies, was killed on 16 August 1837 by the mutineers.
Miranda de Ebro remained for long a rural town. In the middle of the
19th century, more than 50% of the population was made of farmers;
there were a few grain mills, five tileries, four cloth mills and a
few other workshops. The paper mills established at the beginning of
the 19th century would later significantly contribute to the
economical boom of the town.
Industrialization of the town actually started in 1864, following the
building of the Madrid-Irún and Tudela-Bilbao railways by the
Compañía de los Caminos de Hierro del Norte de España. The railway station was designed by the English engineer Charles Blacker Vignoles in Victorian style; the engineer also designed the railway bridge over the Ebro.
From 1846 to 1860, the population of the town increased to 2,896
inhabitants (+ 66%). The foundry Fundiciones Perea, set up in 1919, is
one of the three bell and clock factories still active in Spain.
Ivan Sache, 15 February 2014
The flag of Miranda de Ebro (photo, photo, photo) is crimson red with the municipal coat of
arms in the middle.
A municipal book of accounts, dated 1625, describes the flag as
tafetán carmesí, escudo, cordones y lanza (Crimson fabric, coat of arms; tassels and finial) (López de Gámiz - Boletín del Instituto Municipal de Historia de Miranda de Ebro, 20: 57-58, 1989).
The coat of arms of Miranda de Ebro is "Azure a bridge proper ensigned
with a tower or port and windows gules masoned sable surrounded by two
eagles sable beaked and armed gules, in base waves azure and argent.
The shield surmounted by a crown. The whole placed on a cartel bronze".
The coat of arms was granted on 4 September 1535 by Charles I. No
image of the original coat of arms has been kept. Oddly enough, none
of the historical coats of arms still visible in the town matches the
description in the grant. The coat of arms represented on the facade
of the Town Hall, on the Market Square, and on the Charles III bridge,
all show the bridge with two towers flanking a double-headed eagle.
The shield is surmounted by a Royal crown open. A coat of arms
recently discovered in the gardens of the Sacred-Heart college has a
similar pattern.
Jose Javier Santos Zubizarreta (blog) believes that the first coat of arms of
the town shows a castle, a lion and a knight, possibly inspired by the
capitals of the old St. Nicholas (today Holy Ghost) church and of the
Bardauri church. Why the original design of the coat of arms was
altered remains a matter of speculation. Some say that the coat of
arms imposed by the "foreign" sovereign Charles II, who suppressed the
Revolt of the Comuneros, could not have been popular in Miranda de Ebro.
Ivan Sache, 15 February 2014
Ayuelas
![[Flag]](../images/e/es-bu-az.gif)
Flag of Ayuelas - Image from the Escudos y Banderas de la Provincia de Burgos website, 11 February 2015
Ayuelas, located 10 km of Miranda de Ebro, is divided into two
boroughs (Arriba and Abajo; Upper and Lower, respectively) by the
road, each of them having its own temple. The St. Andrew church (16th-17th century), flanked by a crenellated tower, is located on the higher point of Upper Ayuelas, watching the valley of Ebro. The chapel of the Virgin of Gorejo (early 13th century) is located in Lower Ayuelas.
[Diario de Burgos, 19 October 2013]
The flag of Ayuelas is prescribed by a Decree adopted on 14 October
1999 by the Government of the Province of Burgos, signed on 17 November 1999
by the President of the Government, and published on 2 December 1999
in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 233, pp. 11,758-11,759 (text).
The flag, which was validated by the Chronicler of Arms of Castilla y León, is described as follows:
Flag: Castilian, in proportions 1:1, crimson red, with a white cross whose crossing angle converges to the reduced canton at hoist, the arms of the cross being in height 1/12 of the flag's side. The crossing is charged with a white pilgrim's scallop.
Red is the colour of Castile. The cross is a symbol of the Christian
reconquest. The scallop is the emblem of the pilgrims and the main
charge of the arms of the Miranda family, found in several houses in
the area.
The Royal Academy of History accepted "without any inconvenient" the
proposed flag, modelled on a pennant sculpted on the main altar of the
chapel of the Virgin of Gorejo. A companion proposal, with the flag
increased to the fly and ended with two points, was also valid.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 2001, 198: 3, 560].
The coat of arms of Ayuelas is prescribed by a Decree adopted on 21
January 1999 by the Government of the Province of Burgos, signed on 1 March
1999 by the President of the Government, and published on 11 March
1999 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 48, p. 2,533 (text).
The coat of arms, which was validated by the Chronicler of Arms of Castilla y León, is described as follows:
Coat of arms: Argent a church proper masoned sable roofed gules with a bell tower surmounted by a cross and a windvane flanked by a circular tower sinister a tree eradicated proper orled by five maiden busts surmounted by five scallops azure. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.
Ivan Sache, 11 February 2015
Guinicio
![[Flag]](../images/e/es-bu-gu.gif)
Flag of Guinicio - Image from the Escudos y Banderas de la Provincia de Burgos website, 19 February 2015
Guinicio thrived around the Santa María de Guinicio monastery. In
1054, García, King of Navarre, donated Santa María de Guinicio to the San Millán de la Cogolla monastery. This was confirmed in 1099 and further, until 1406, when the monastery was transferred to the Espino
monastery.
The emblem of Guinicio is a centenary fir, beneath which lies a big,
circular stone to be seen nowhere else.
The flag and arms of Guinicio, approved on 28 February 2000 by the
Village Council, are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 8 June 2000 by
the Government of the Province of Burgos, signed on 15 June 2000 by the
President, and published on 6 July 2000 in the official gazette of
Castilla y León, No. 130, p. 8,518 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: Quadrangular, in proportions 1:1. Green, a red saltire superimposed with a white cross. Radius of 2/6 parts. In the center is placed the coat of arms of Guinicio surmounted with the Royal crown closed.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Vert a chapel argent, 2. Argent a fir vert. Grafted in base gules a millstone argent. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown closed.
The flag is very close to the Ikurrina; Guinicio is indeed located on the border with the Basque Country, here river Ebro.
Ivan Sache & Antonio Teixeira, 20 February 2015
Montañana
![[Flag]](../images/e/es-bu-mn.gif)
Flag of Montañana - Image from the Escudos y Banderas de la Provincia de Burgos website, 24 February 2015
The flag of Montañana is prescribed by a Decree adopted on 10 February 2000 by the Government of the Province of Burgos, signed on 21 February 2000 by the President, and published on 6 March 2000 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 45, pp. 2,519-2,520 (text).
The flag, which was validated by the Chronicler of Arms of Castilla y León, is described as follows:
Flag: Castilian, white, a blue chevron above a yellow triangle. In the chevron is placed the full coat of arms of Montañana.
The Royal Academy of History rejected the proposed flag since it
includes a municipal cot of arms "totally unacceptable", because of
the use of the royal arms of Castile and León. Approval requires the
submission of new flag and arms.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 2002, 199, 1: 146.]
Ivan Sache, 24 February 2015
