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Last modified: 2020-02-22 by ivan sache
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Flag of Valverde de los Arroyos - Image by "Asqueladd", Wikimedia Commons
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The municipality of Valverde de los Arroyos (90 inhabitants in 2015; 4,500 ha; municipal website) is located 75 km north-west of Guadalajara. The municipality is made of the villages of Valverde de los Arroyos and Zarzuela de Galve.
Valverde was incorporated in 1149 by Alfonso VII to the Community of the Town and Land of Atienza, a big domain that encompassed the Ocejón area. Following the progressive territorial decrease of the Community, Peter I granted in 1354 the domain of Galve, which included Valverde and the neighbouring hamlets, to Iñigo López de Orozco. The domain was transferred in 1404 to the Zúñiga / Estúñiga lineage, being sold in 1543 to Ana de la Cerda. The sales act, signed on 18 September 1544 in Valladolid, lists: "the town of Galve with its fortress and all places belonging to its land: Cestalviejo, Valdepinillos, Lagüerce, Zarzuela, Pedro Yuste, Ombrialejo, Valverde, Majadas Viejas, Palancares, La Mata de Robledo, with all their inhabitants, customs, rights and casements...". Following the marriage, in 1718, of Manuel de Silva, Count of Galve, the town was transferred to the Alba lineage, which would rule it until the abolishment of the feudal system. The castle of Valverde remained the property of the Count of Galve until sold in 1970.
Valverde was once known as Las Porquerizas (The Pigpens), a toponym
mentioned in Alfonso XI's Libro de la Montería. A local tradition says
that the name of the place was changed in the first half of the 15th
century by a bishop who visited the area and was upset by the name of
the village; this explanation is hardly plausible since bishops were not
expected to visit such isolated places at the time. Another tradition
says that the name of the village was built on "va a verde", "go to
green", referring to shepherds moving in summer to the local pastures
and eventually settling there. Whatever its origin, the name of Valverde
appears on a census dated 1591, while the village was still called Las
Porquerizas on a census dated 1528.
The village was renamed to Valverde de Ocejón, probably for the sake of
differenciation from other places named Valverde. It was also called,
occasionally, Valverde de la Sierra.
The official name of Valverde de los Arroyos was prescribed by a Royal
Decree signed on 27 June 1916.
Valverde is one of the best preserved "black villages", named for the color of the slate used to build and cover houses. As opposed to strict "black architecture", the building style of Valverde is often called "golden architecture", because limestone and pebbles are usually incorporated to the slate walls. Other buildings, such as lime kilns, stables and bridges, were erected the same way. In the past, building and maintenance of the houses was the duty of the whole community, which is still, sometimes, the case. Municipal and provincial norms, as well as regulations issued by the Sierra Norte Natural Park, have allowed the preservation of the architectural homogeneity of the village.
Ivan Sache, 7 September 2019
The flag of Valverde de los Arroyos is prescribed by an Order issued on
30 October 2006 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on
10 November 2006 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 234,
p. 24,344 (text).
The flag is described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular in proportions 2:3, argent with two blue horizontal wavy stripes and two green triangles.
The coat of arms of Valverde de los Arroyos is prescribed by an Order
issued on 14 February 2006 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and
published on 1 March 2006 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha,
No. 46, p. 4,893 (text).
The coat of arms is described as follows:
Coat of arms: Per pale inverted vert and argent two fesses wavy azure. The shield surmounted by a Spanish Royal crown.
The flag is an orthogonally rotated version of the arms, which increases
the triangle's visibility.
The arms are canting: the division of the shield forms a "V", for "Val",
while the green (verde) flanks complete the name of the village. The
waves represent the brooks (arroyos) for which the village was named.
[Jorge Hurtado Maqueda. 2008-2010. Vexilología local en Guadalajara. Wad-al-Hayara: Revista de estudios de Guadalajara 35-37, 475-505 ]
Ivan Sache, 7 September 2019
