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Last modified: 2020-02-22 by ivan sache
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Flag of La Toba - Image by Ivan Sache, 6 September 2019
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The municipality of La Toba (99 inhabitants in 2014; 3,660 ha; municipal website) is located 60 km north-east of Guadalajara.
The former municipality of Alcorlo was incorporated to La Toba by a
Decree adopted on 28 July 1987 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha
and published on 19 February 1988 in the Spanish official gazette, No.
43, p. 5,429 (text). In 1982, the establishment of the Alcorlo Reservoir (599
ha) by the Tagus Hydrographic Confederation required the expropriation
and flooding of the village of Alcorlo. The set up of the Autonomous
Communities prevented the regularization of the status of Alcorlo, which
kept a legal existence while having lost its territory, population and
municipal administration. Acordingly, the processus of municipal merging
was initiated on 20 October 1986 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha.
La Toba was first mentioned, as Val de la Tova, in a document dated 21 October 1231. The place is called Val de La Toba in Alfonso XI's Libro de la Monteria (first half of the 14th century), and, again, Val de la Tova, in the census of the churches of the diocese of Sigüenza ordered by King Peter I. The modern name of the village was coined on 25 September 1453. The village is named for toba, "tuffa", the stone used to build houses, locally found only in the valley.
Ivan Sache, 6 September 2019
The flag of La Toba is prescribed by a Decree issued on 28 February 2011
by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on 10 March 2011
in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 48, p. 9,278 (text).
The flag is described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular panel in proportions 2:3, crimson red, charged in the center with the coat of arms of the municipality.
The coat of arms of La Toba is prescribed by a Decree issued on 28
February 2011 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on
10 March 2011 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 48, p.
9,277 (text).
The coat of arms is described as follows:
Coat of arms: Quarterly, 1. Purpure a three-towered castle or with port and 14 windows sable, 2. The arms of the Mendoza lineage, quartered per saltire 1. and 4. Gules a bend vert fimbriated or, 2. and 3. Or the angelic salute Ave María in the 2. and Gratia Plena in the 3. all azure, 3. Or the pillory of the villa of La Toba purpure, 4. Gules a "Tau" argent surmounted by a "L" of the same. The shield surmounted with the Royal Spanish crown.
The process of adoption of municipal symbols was initiated on 29 January
2010 by the Municipal Council. The symbols were originally adopted on 31
January 2011 by the Municipal Council.
The crimson red color of the flag is the traditional color of Castile,
defined in 1977 by Ramón José Maldonado Cocat, member of the Royal
Academy of History and Arts of San Fernando as the color most adequately
representing Castilla-la Mancha. White, the color of the military
orders, was not retained, since these orders had little, if any,
presence in La Toba.
The width of the coat of arms on the flag should be 2/3 of the flag's width.
The first quarter represents the seal of the Council of Atienza. La
Toba, including since 1987 Alcorlo, the site of the ruined castle of
Corlo, was part of the Council of the Common of the Town and Land of
Atienza, established in 1149 by King Alfonso VII. Purpure is the color
of Castile. Or is the color traditionally used to represent castles.
The second quarter features the arms of the Mendoza lineage, recalling
that La Toba belonged to the sexmo (administrative division) of
Bornova. King John II granted in 1453 the sexmos of Bornova and
Henares, together with the castle of Corlo, to Alonso Gómez de Acuña.
His nephew, Alfonso Gómez de Acuña, swapped the domain, together with
the town of Jadrique, for the town of Maqueda and the Alcaldia Mayor of
Toledo with Pedro González de Mendoza, who transferred the new domain to his son, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar y Mendoza, Marquis of Cenete. The title and the domain were then inherited by the senior, male or female,
descendant. Accordingly, La Toba was transferred to the House of the
Infantado, created in Guadalajara by the Mendoza, after the death in
1580 of María de Mendoza y Fonseca, 3rd Marchioness of Cenete; her son,
Iñigo López de Mendoza y Fonseca was the 5th Duke of the Infantado.
The third quarter symbolizes the status of villa granted on 12 January
1632 by Philip IV to La Toba. The grant allowed the erection of a
pillory, reprensented on the arms in purpure, the color of justice. The
field or represents the civil and criminal jurisdiction granted to the town.
The fourth quarter represents the name of the town. Argent represents
the silver mines once exploited in Alcorlo. The field gules symbolize
the blood shed during the various historical episodes, from the Roman
conquest to the Civil War.
[La Thova: Historia de la Villa de la Toba, by Javier Cantero González and Fernando González
Atienza]
Diego Hurtado de Mendoza y Figueroa (1415/1417-1479), the elder son of
Íñigo López de Mendoza, First Marquis of Santillana, was made Duke of the Infantado (full title, "Duque de las Cinco Villas del Estado del Infantado") in 1475; subsequently, the Dukes of the Infantado were made first-rank Grandees of Spain, and were therefore allowed to wear
their hat in the presence of the king. Íñigo de Arteaga y Martín (b. 1941) is the 19th Duke of the Infantado.
"Vert a bend gules fimbriated or" are the oldest known arms of
Mendoza; subsequently modified several times, the arms always included
a red bend on a green field. The arms quartered per saltire were
introduced by the first Marquis of Santillana and appear on a seal
dated 1440; the marquis quartered his father's arms (Mendoza) with his
mother's arms (de la Vega). His descendants were known as Mendoza de
Guadalajara or Mendoza de l'Ave María. In the representations of these arms, the first quarter is inscribed with "AVE MARÍA" while the third quarter is inscribed with "PLENA GRATIA" (or, at least "GRATIA").
[José Luis García de Paz (UAM), Los poderosos Mendoza]
Ivan Sache, 6 September 2019
