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Last modified: 2019-10-06 by ivan sache
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Flag of La Almarcha - Image by Ivan Sache, 28 June 2019
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The municipality of La Almarcha (375 inhabitants in 2018; 6,400 ha) is
located 60 km south-west of Cuenca and 50 km north of San Clemente.
La Almarcha was already settled by the Romans, as evidenced by coins,
tiles and fragments of vases found in Los Villares. The Arab village was
mentioned in 1172 in the chronicle al-Man Bil Imama, which related the
expedition of Sultan Yusuf against Huete.
Ivan Sache, 28 June 2019
The flag of La Almarcha is prescribed by an Order issued on 26 May 1994
by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on 3 June 1994 in
the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 29, pp. 2,151-2,152 (text).
The flag is described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 2:3, composed of a white panel charged with a green rectangle leaving a bordure of 1/6 of the flag's width, in the center a yellow disk in diameter 1/4 of the flag's width.
The coat of arms of La Almarcha is prescribed by an Order issued on 26
May 1994 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on 3 June
1994 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 29, pp. 2,151-2,152 (text).
The coat of arms is described as follows:
Coat of arms: Spanish shield. Per fess, 1. Azure a lake argent, 2a. Vert, 2b. Gules a sheep argent. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.
The Royal Academy rejected an earlier proposed coat of arms, which
featured a lake, a sunflower plant and a narrow cross. The presence of
the lake is justified by the existence in the place of a lake called
Pozo Airón, but its graphic representation is "unfortunate and
unrecognizable". The sunflower, as the dominating crop, can be accepted,
but is might be so only transitory, depending on economical
circumstances, and is not exclusive to the place. The opportunity to
show it on the arms is very dubious. There is no explanation for the
third element, a charge very rare in heraldry and totally unknown in
Spanish heraldry.
The Academy postponed the evaluation of the flag, which is modeled on
the coat of arms. The two emblems have to be jointly evaluated.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 189:2, 342. 1992]
Pozo Airón, lit. Airón's Well, is a small brackish lake. Airón was the Celtiberian god of deep water, duality and underground word; the Usetani
tribe believed that Airón lived at the bottom of the "well", and might
have offered him human sacrifices.
Airón's Well is the place of several tales and legends, which prompted
Kings Charles I and Philip II to visit the place. The lake is allegedly
inhabited by monsters that enjoy the high salt concentration of the
water, such as sharks and green snakes covered with scales and equipped
with phosphorescent eyes.
A legend dating back to the Christian reconquest and widely spread in
the 17th century, maybe reminiscent of the alleged human sacrifices,
recalls that Bueso, lieutenant of the Moorish king of Seville in La Almarcha, threw in the lake his 24 girlfriends. The "genuine" version of
the story tells that Bueso decided to get rid of all his girlfriends and
to steal their jewels. The youngest and nicest of them innocently
required Bueso to turn down whilst they would take off their clothes and
jump into the lake. As soon as he accepted, she picked up a big stone
from the lake and threw it to Bueso's neck, who fell down to the lake
(and was probably engulfed by one of the monsters).
Bueso's legend was echoed by Miguel de Cervantes in El Viaje al
Parnaso (folio 79v). Mothers are encouraged to threaten their whiny
children by saying: "Care, children, that the poet comes who will throw
you with his bad verses into the Sima Cave or Airón's Well".
[Ser Castilla-La Mancha, 22 January 2018]
Ivan Sache, 28 June 2019
