Last modified: 2020-02-22 by ivan sache
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The municipality of Retiendas (42 inhabitants in 2018 vs. 483 in 1950; 2,099 ha) is located 50 km north of Guadalajara.
Ivan Sache, 7 September 2019
The flag and arms of Retiendas are prescribed by Order No. 51, issued on
14 March 2019 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on
28 March 2019 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 62, p.
9,771 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: Horizontal, in proportions 2:3, with three vertical stripes. The first, along the hoist, vert (1:4), the second, orange, charged with the proper arms of the municipality (1:2), and the third, gules (1:4).
Coat of arms: Per fess, 1. Azure a monastery proper cantonned by four fleurs-de-lis or, 2. Vert a three-arched bridge argent on waves azure and argent. The shield surmounted by a Royal Spanish crown.
The coat of arms features the monastery of Santa María de Bonaval.
In 1164, King Alfonso VIII offered the valley where the monastery would
be built to a group of Cistercian monks, commissioned to resettle the
area and to protect it against Moorish raids, although the border with
the Muslim states was already further in the south. The first monks came
from the Santa María de Valbuena monastery in Valladolid, and, probably, from the French homonimic monastery of Notre-Dame de Bonneval. In 1175,
Alfonso VIII transferred the hwole valley to the monks and listed the
possessions of the monastery.
Bonaval is among the southernmost Cistercian foundations, built in
Romanesque style with Gothic evolutions, in compliance with the
Cistercian rules. The building of the church must have been initiated on
the early 13th centuery.
In 1821, the monks withdrew to Toledo and the monastery was sold to private owners who could not care less for its preservation. Some
capitals were re-used in the village's houses and fountain. Most
archives and artwork were lost, except a few pieces kept by the
Retiendas parish.
Parts of the church are still standing, mostly the chevet, the transept
crossing and the southern nave; a sacristy appended to the apse was
probably a chapel used during the building of the church. The church was
rectangular (42 m x 37 m), with three naves and three apses, the
central, polygonal, and the lateral, rectangular. The main architectural
element of the church is the main gate, located in the southern end of
the transept, with four archivolts and four pairs of columns decorated
with naturalistic capitals.
Bonval, included on 2 December 2007 on the Red List of Heritage, was delisted on 28 June 2018 after the Government of Castilla-la Mancha had initiated restoration works; the first out of the four restoration sequences has been completed, so that the monument can be open to the
public.
Ivan Sache, 7 September 2019
