![[Flag]](../images/e/es-m-leg.gif)
Last modified: 2016-05-20 by ivan sache
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Flag of Leganés - Image by Ivan Sache, 11 July 2015
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The municipality of Leganés (86,696 inhabitants in 2014, therefore the 5th most populated municipality in the Community; 4,325 ha; municipal website) is located in the south of the Community of Madrid, 15 km of Madrid. The municipality experienced a demographic boom in the second half of the 20th century, its population increasing from 8,539 inhabitants in 1960 to 57,537 in 1970 and 173,043 in 1991.
Leganés was established in the 13th century, according to the
tradition by inhabitants of the neighbouring villages of Butarque and
Overa. The town was first documented, as Leganos, in sales of land by
the Santo Domingo de Madrid convent, dated September 1232 (Leganos)
and February 1262, respectively. The place was named for légamo / légano, "a muddy lagoon". Leganés was subsequently mentioned in folio No. 29 of St. Isidor's Miracles, a book written at the end of the 13th century by Deacon Juan; according to the author, Leganés was in 1271 a hamlet depending on Madrid. Other documents refer to a territorial dispute opposing Leganés, supported by Madrid, to Polvoranca - a village subsequently incorporated to Leganés in the
19th century; mentioned in 1400, the lawsuit was not settled yet in
1490. Another legal case opposed in 1481 Alfonso Arias Dávila and
Leganés for the ownership of a mill erected on brook Butarque. The
first known graphical representation of Leganés is found in the first
Atlas de España, designed by Pedro de Esquivel in 1551/1570.
Leganés was granted the status of villa on 15 March 1627 by King Philip IV and transferred to Diego Messía de Guzmán, made 1st Marquis of Leganés.
Ivan Sache, 11 July 2015
The flag (photos, photo, photo, photo, photo, photo, photo) and arms (description) of Leganés are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 8
May 1985 by the Government of the Community of Madrid and published on
1 June 1985 in the official gazette of the Community of Madrid, No.
129, p. 1 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: Turquoise blue, recalling the oldest pennant of the Marquis of Leganés. The coat of arms of the municipality of Leganés.
Coat of arms: Per fess, 1. Quarterly per saltire, 1. and 4. Azure a cauldron checky gules and or each hand with seven snake's head vert, 2. and 3. Argent five ermine spots sable, a bordure compony Castile and Leon (Guzmán), 2. Azure a lagoon argent. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed [detailed description skipped].
A correction (in the description of the crown) was published on 11 September 1985 in the official gazette of the Community of Madrid, No. 216, p. 1 (text).
The coat of arms of Leganés was first approved by Decree No. 605, adopted on 15 March 1962 by the Spanish Government and published on 30 March 1962 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 77, p. 4,351 (text).
The coat of arms is described as follows:
Coat of arms: Per fess, 1. Quarterly per saltire, 1. and 4. Azure a cauldron checky gules and or each hand with seven snake's head vert, 2. and 3. Argent five ermine spots sable, a bordure compony Castile and León (Guzmán), 2. Azure a lagoon argent. The shield surmounted by a Marquis' coronet.
The flag was designed by the official Chronicler of the town, Juan
Antonio Alonso Resalt, upon request of Mayor Fernando Abad Bécquer.
The historical model of the flag is represented on the painting
"Rescue of the town of Lérida in 1646", made by Pieter Snayers and
kept, as No. 1,716, in the Section of the Battles of the Prado Museum
in Madrid. The trumpet flag held by the herald of Diego Messía de
Guzmán, 1st Marquis of Leganés, is decorated with a turquoise blue flag charged in the middle with the coat of arms of the Marquis.
The substitution of a Royal crown to the Marquis' coronet of the
original design was recommended by the Royal Academy of History, as
proposed by Juan Antonio Alonso Resalt. The lambrequins that
surrounded the shield in the coat of arms used for decorative purpose
were also suppressed. A subsequent modification of the design was made
by the official Chronicler of the town of La Codosera (Province of Cáceres, Extremadura), who lived in Leganés. The last transformation
was made by the heraldist and historian Pedro Cordero Alvarado, who
separated the arms of the Guzmán from the laggon.
The 1st quarter features the arms of Diego Messía de Guzmán, 1st
Marquis of Leganés. The 2nd quarter features the laggon that gave the
name of the town, making the arms canting.
[Real Asociación Española de Cronistas Oficiales]
Ivan Sache & Dov Gutterman, 11 July 2015
