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Last modified: 2019-10-18 by ivan sache
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Flag of Villora - Image by Ivan Sache, 24 July 2019
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The municipality of Villora (128 inhabitants in 2018; 6,888 ha; municipal website) is located 80 km south-east of Cuenca.
Villora was settled in the Age of Iron (La Veguilla), and, subsequently,
by the Celtiberians (El Guilón) who exploited the local iron mines, and
the Romans (La Mezquitilla villa, Castil de Olivas camp).
Located at a strategic junction of roads heading to Castile, Valencia
and Aragón, the village emerged around an Arab castle (12th century),
from which only a big tower and a few walls have been preserved.
The first lord of Villora was Pedro de Zúñiga, Count of Ledesma and of
Plasencia, who organized in 1443 the re-settlement of the area. Diego de
Zúñiga, Abbot of Parraces, was lord of Villora in 1553. In 1719, José
Francisco Sarmiento de Sotomayor, Count of Salvatierra and husband of
Leonor Dávila Ponce y Zúñiga, Countess of Vaigres, sold Villora to
Eugenio de Zúñiga and his brother José. Antonio de Zúñiga inherited in
1732 the Marquisate of Villora. After the death in 1811 of the last
Marquess of Villora, Tomás Bellanguer Zúñiga y Cerda, his possessions
were transferred to the Count of Salvatierra and, later, to the Duke of
Híjar, which required several lawsuits. Gil Roger y Duval acquired in
1874 from the widow duchess several plots in Villora, Yémeda, Enguídanos
and Las Majadas, which he sold in 1897 to the villagers.
The Impossibles' Bridge (photos) allows the Madrid-Valencia railway to cross river Villora. Its nickname was coined by workers who believed they would never complete it. Made of concrete, the bridge spans over 274 m and overlooks the valley from 67 m. Achieved in 1943, the bridge was among the first significant achievements of the Francoist regime.
Ivan Sache, 24 July 2019
The flag of Villora is prescribed by an Order issued on 2 September 2005
by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on 14 September
2005 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 184, p. 16,613 (text).
The flag is described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 2:3, made of five vertical stripes in proportions 4:15, 1:15, 1:3, 1:15, and 4:15, the outer stripes, green, the intermediate stripes, white, and the central stripe, red with the yellow castle of Villora masoned in black and port and windows azure.
The coat of arms of Villora is prescribed by an Order issued on 2
September 2005 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on
14 September 2005 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No.
184, p. 16,613 (text).
The coat of arms is described as follows:
Coat of arms: Gules the castle of Villora or masoned sable port and windows azure surrounded by two pines eradicated argent a chief serrated argent a base wavy argent and azure. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.
The Royal Academy of History rejected the proposed symbols. The figures
that can be accepted in heraldry should always be generic and never
unique, differentiated by specific features as it is the case here for
the castle shown on the arms and on the flag. Oddly enough, this element
designed with a realistic point of view is assigned heraldic colors far
from being realistic. Moreover, the description of the arms does not
match the companion drawing, and the serrated chief is unknown to the
traditional, municipal heraldry of Castile.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 202:2, 313. 2005]
Ivan Sache, 24 July 2019
