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Last modified: 2020-02-22 by ivan sache
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Flag of Sayatón - Image by Ivan Sache, 7 September 2019
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The municipality of Sayatón (81 inhabitants in 2018 vs. 837 in 1950; 4,538 ha; municipal website) is located on the border with the Province of Cuenca, 70 km south-west of Guadalajara.
Sayatón was already settled at the Roman times, as evidenced by remains
if a settlement and an inscribed funerary flagstone. Little is known
about the history of the town, which is said to have emerged around the
Saya Inn, inhabited by a famous tailor.
Ana de al Cerda acquired in 1539 Sayatón from the Order of Calatrava. The village remained part of the Duchy of Pastrana; after the union of
the Pastrana and Infantado lineage, the village was transferred to the
Duchy of the infantado.
Sayatón was granted the status of villa on 7 September 1728,
separating from Pastrana.
Tne castle of Anguix was erected on a hill overlooking river Tagus. Of
Moorish origin, the castle was fiercelu disputed by local lords after
the Christian reconquest. Alfonso VII granted the castle in 1136 to
Martín Ordóñez, a knight from Toledo; his widow offered it in 1174 to the Order of Calatrava, which incorporated to the Commandery of Zorita.
Reincorporated to the Royal domain in the 14th cntury, the castle
belonged to the council of Huete. Alfonso XI granted it to Alfón
Martínez; the marriage of his son Lope López transferred the castle to
the Carrillo, a powerful family from Huete. Henry IV, owner of the
fortress in 1464, probably from a sale, offered it to Lope Vazquez de
Acuña, another member of the Carrillo lineage, who eventually sold
Anguix in 1484 to Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, 1st Count of Tendilla. The
fortress and the surrounding domain were acquired in 1847 by Justo
Hernández, from Brihuega.
[Ayer y Hoy de Guadalajara y Provincia, 6 July 2008]
Sayatón has became the archetype of the Spanish abandoned villages after María Ángeles Rosado posted a message on Twitter on 31 December 2019:
Finishing sowing.
Mother, young farmer from Sayatón, small municipality of 50 inhabitants in Guadalajara, closed to the Sierra de Altomira, Natura 2000, without secondary school and child dcotor, a doctor one hour per week. We don't give up, with a dream, feeding the world.
The closure of the Zorita nuclear power plant in 2006 accelerated the
eorision of the poopulation of the village. As a consequence, bus lines
to Madrid and Guadalajara had their frequency decreased, to be
eventually suppressed. In the 1950s, Sayatón was a busy village with
more than 800 inhabitants, three inns, two secondary schools and three
bars. The last bar was recently re-opened by a young Uruguayan couple.
The Province of Guadalajara counts 180 municipalities with less than 100
inhabitants, teh highest number among the Spanish provinces.
[El Confidencial, 7 January 2019]
Ivan Sache, 7 September 2019
The flag of Sayatón is prescribed by an Order issued on 25 November 1991
by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on 29 November
1991 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 91, pp. 4,189-4,190 (text).
The flag is described as follows:
Flag: Cloth in usual dimensions, with two stripes of equal proportions horizontally separated, the upper, white and the lower, red, charged with the local coat of arms.
The Royal Academy of History rejected a previously proposed flag,
composed of the red-white flag of Castilla-La Mancha charged with a
castle or in the red part. Considering that the proposed design did not
correctly account for the place, the Academy proposed instead the design
that was eventually adopted.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 181:3, 439-440. 1984]
The coat of arms of Sayatón is prescribed by Decree No. 47, issued on 7
May 1986 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on 13 May
1986 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 19, p. 698 (text).
The coat of arms is described as follows:
Coat of arms: Per fess, 1a. Argent a Cross of Calatrava gules, 1b. Quarterly per saltire (Mendoza): 1. and 3. Vert a bend gules fimbriated or, 2. Or the legend AVE MARIA in letters azure, 4. Or the legend GRATIA PLENA in letters azure, 2. Argent waves azure and argent. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.
The Royal Academy of History accepted the proposed arms, although they
were "deficiently described". The upper quarters recall the feudal lords
of Sayatón, the Order of Calatrava and the house of Pastrana. The lower
quarter represents river Tagus and the Bolarque dam.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 181:3, 439-440. 1984]
Ivan Sache, 7 September 2019
