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Last modified: 2016-12-11 by ivan sache
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Banner of Arroyomolinos de León - Image by Ivan Sache, 18 August 2016
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The municipality of Arroyomolinos de León (1,023 inhabitants in 2013; 8,695 ha) is located 140 km north-east of Huelva on the border with the Province of Badajoz (Extremadura).
Arroyomolinos de León was granted after the Reconquest to Pelay Pérez Correa, Grand Master of the Order of St. James, as a reward for his victory in the battle of La Calera, fought on Mount Tentudía. The legend recalls that the Master invoked the Virgin for an increase in the day length, which was done and allowed the victory; the miracle was commemorated with the erection of the Tentudía monastery.
Centuries later, the place was re-settled by colonists from Castile and, especially, León, who came via the Silver Route. The Greater Commandery of León, watching the border with the Moorish states, included five settlements: Fuentes de León, Segura de León, Calera de León (today in the Province of Badajoz), Cañaveral de León, and Arroyomolinos de León (today in the Province of Huelva). The limits between the settlements were not clearly defined, causing a lot of usurpation and appeal.
When the Order of St. James was suppressed in 1485, the domain was reincorporated to the crown and incorporated to the Marquisate of Aracena. After the suppression of the feudal system, Arroyomolinos was incorporated in 1809 to the Department of Gualdalquivir Bajo, and, subsequently, to the Province of Extremadura. The town was transferred to the newly created Province of Huelva by a Royal Decree signed on 30 November 1833 by Isabel II. The inhabitants of the town appealed the Decree in 1835, to no avail.
[El Camino de Santiago en Andalucía, 8 December 2013]
Ivan Sache, 18 August 2016
The flag (photo, photo) and arms of Arroyomolinos de León, adopted on 4 May 1990 by the Municipal Council and validated on 14 June 1991 by the Royal Academy of History, are prescribed by Decree No. 193, adopted on 15 October 1991 by the Government of Andalusia and published on 3 December 1991 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 106, p. 9,726 (text). This was confirmed by a Resolution adopted on 30 November 2004 by the Directorate General of the Local Administration and published on 20 December 2004 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 246, pp. 28,986-29,002 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular panel, horizontally divided in three stripes, white, red, and white, charged in the center with the crowned municipal coat of arms.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Or a millstone proper in base waves azure and argent 2. Argent a cross-sword of St. James gules. The shield surmounted by a Royal Spanish crown.
The memoir supporting the proposed symbols was submitted on 10 April 1990 by Alfonso Ceballos-Escalera Gil, who had been commissioned on 20 September 1989 by the Municipality. Two ink seals used in the 19th century, kept in the Madrid National Archives, feature the national arms used at the time of Isabel II ("Quarterly Castile and León grafted in base Granada inescutcheon Anjou. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown"). Nothing else was found, firmly supporting he conclusion that the municipality never used proper arms. Accordingly, the coat of arms and the flag were designed from scratch, reflecting the local history.
[Juan José Antequera. Principios de transmisibilidad en las heráldicas officiales de Sevilla, Córdoba y Huelva]
Te dexter part of the arms forms a rebus of the name of the municipality, showing a mill (molino) stone over a brook (arroyo). The sinister part recalls the Order of St. James, once ruler of the place.
Ivan Sache, 18 August 2016
