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Last modified: 2020-11-14 by ivan sache
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Flag of Garrovillas de Alconétar - Image by Ivan Sache, 20 March 2020
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The municipality of Garrovillas de Alconétar (2,034 inhabitants in 2019 vs. 6,429 in 1950; 20,700 ha; municipal website) is located 40 km north-west of Cáceres.
The municipality was renamed from Garrovillas to Garrovillas de Alconétar by Decree No. 48 issued on 3 April 2001 by the Government of Extremadura and published on 14 April 2001 in the official gazette of Extremadura, No. 43, p. 3,804 (text), and on 2 October 2001 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 236, p. 36,543 (text).
Garrovillas was originally a hamlet depending on the town of Alconétar. After the suppression of Alconétar in the Lower Middle Ages, Garrovillas, then known as Garro, inherited its charter and territory, which spread until the Chestnuts' Pass and included the Four Settlements.
The past wealth of the town is emphasized by the town's main square designed in the 15th and 16th centuries; of more than 4,000 m2 in area, it is listed among Spain's twelve plazas mayores.
Alconétar was famous for the bridge erected by architect Lucius Vivius (1st century) on the Silver Road that connected Mérida to Astorga. The 13-arched bridge, of 250 m in length, spanned over river Tagus. It was renamed by the Arabs of Alconétar, meaning "the second bridge" or "the smaller bridge". The bridge was ruined in 1085 during the Christian reconquest of the valley of Tagus.
[Municipal website]
The Garrote dolmen was excavated by Jerónimo de Sande, who presented several artifacts dated to the transition period between the Stone and the Bronze Ages at the Paris International Fair 1878; the artifact were subsequently offered to the National Museum of Archeology. Another three dolmens were subsequently excavated.
T5he Alconétar sword, dated to the Iron Age, was found in 1931 during the building of the new railway bridge (Madrid-Lisbon line) that replaced the original bridge designed by Gustave Eiffel.
In 1969, the filling of the Alcántara dam caused the flooding of the site, the dolmens and the two bridges included.
The Florines tower, now emerging from the lake, was erected on the Rochafría spur, near the confluence of Tagus and Almonte, by the Romans on the remains of a Celtic fortified camp. Brutus used it as his headquarters during the Lusitanian Wars. Revamped by the Moors, the tower was subsequently managed by the Order of the Temple, which kept inside a fragment of the tablecloth used during the Last Supper.
The Alconétar bridge was transported, stone by stone, to a safer site.
[Municipal website].
Ivan Sache, 20 March 2020
The flag of Garrovillas de Alconétar (photo), adopted on 1 March 2000 by the Municipal Council and validated on 1 June 2000 by the Assessing Council of Honors and Distinctions of the Government of Extremadura, is prescribed by an Order issued on 29 June 2000 by the Government of Extremadura and published on 11 July 2000 in the official gazette of Extremadura, No. 80, p. 7,231 (text).
The flag is described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 2:3. Composed of five horizontal stripes in proportions 1:6, 1:6, 1:3, 1:6 and 1:6, the two intermediate stripes, blue, the other, white, a red triangle placed along the hoist. Charged in the center with the municipal coat of arms in full colors.
The coat of arms of Garrovillas de Alconétar, adopted on 30 January 1992 by the Municipal Council and validated on 17 May 1995 by the Assessing Council of Honors and Distinctions of the Government of Extremadura, is prescribed by an Order issued on 4 August 2000 by the Government of Extremadura and published on 12 August 2000 in the official gazette of Extremadura, No. 94, p. 8,469 (text).
The coat of arms is described as follows:
Coat of arms: Azure a bridge or ensigned by an arch of the same over weaves azure and or surrounded by mount of plants ensigned by a castle or over vertical waves azure and argent. Grafted in chief, Gules a letter "A" or. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.
The symbols were severely criticized by Pedro Cordero Alvarado (Actas de las I Jornadas de Historias Locales).
The original wording of the blazon is flawed, both from a heraldic and grammatical point of view. This is not compliant with Decree No. 13 issued on 19 February 1991 prescribing "to describe the coats of arms accurately and with the appropriate heraldic lexicon".
The arms feature realistic representations of the Alconétar bridge and the Florines tower, which are not compliant with the rules of heraldry, either.
The grafted in chief pattern is very uncommon in Spanish heraldry, especially for municipal coats of arms. Faustino Menéndez Pidal states that such divided arms were used only in the 15th and 16th centuries by Spanish cardinals, the grafted quarter being charged with the papal arms ar a signo subjectionis.
The grafted charge gules - not a quarter - placed on a field gules breaks the most basic rule of tincture (metal should not be put on metal, nor should color on color).
The castle is represented as a tower - in Spanish heraldry, a castle should feature three towers.
Pedro Cordero Alvarado also points out that the flag was registered before the coat of arms, while it features the said coat of arms.
Ivan Sache, 20 March 2020
