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Last modified: 2019-01-13 by ivan sache
Keywords: cantalejo | valdesimonte |
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The municipality of Cantalejo (3,693 inhabitants in 2015; 7,943 ha; municipal website) is located 50 km from Segovia and 40 km from Cuéllar. The municipality is made of the town of Cantalejo and of the villages of Aldeonsancho (46 inh.) and Valdesimonte (54 inh.).
Ivan Sache, 9 March 2015
Valdesimonte
Flag of Valdesimonte - Image by "Asqueladd" (Wikimedia Commons), 9 March 2015
Valdesimonte (unofficial website) was incorporated to the municipality of Cantalejo by Decree No. 3451, adopted on 12 November 1970 by the Spanish Government and published on 2 December 1970 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 288, p. 19,616 (text). The submunicipal entity of Valdesimonte was established by Royal Decree No. 601, adopted on 14 March 1980 and published on 2 April 1980 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 80,p. 7,308 (text).
Valdesimonte was first mentioned in 1192, as Valle de Simeon, in a
donation made on 11 August 1192 by Alfonso VIII to the long
disappeared monastery of Santo Tomé del Puerto. The donation of Valle
de Simeon was confirmed in 1231 by Ferdinand III. The village was
mentioned, as Valdesymeon, on a book of accounts of the town of
Segovia dated 1 June 1247, and again, on a corrected account released
the same year, as Valde Symeon.
Valdesimonte was transferred in 1423 by Pedro Fernández, Vicar of the
village, to the town of Sepúlveda. A document dated 1436 mentions
Valdesimonte and Santa María de Valdesimonte. In early 1472, King
Henry IV excluded the land of Sepúlveda, Valdesimonte included, from
the domain and jurisdiction of the town, which had rebelled against
him, prevented the entrance of his troops with barricades, and had
welcomed Pedro de Ávila "El Mozo" and other partisans of his enemy,
the king of Sicily.
Valdesimonte was probably named for a re-settler, a "Simeon", whose
identity is unknown. Ángel Gómez Moreno and Oscar Perea
(Valdesimonte, sus orígenes, 2004) believe that the re-settler was
indeed Enneco Simenoes, mentioned by the local historian Diego de
Colmenares (Historia de la Insigne Ciudad de Segovia) as a
lieutenant of Alfonso I the Battler (1073-1134), King of Aragón, and,
for a while, of Castile. Simeones was indeed active in the region
spreading from Sepúlveda to the south of river Duero. "Senior Enrico
Ximinones in Extremature" counter-signed in 1122 a donation made by
Alfonso I to the Segovia cathedral and bishopric, and, the same year,
as "Senior Enneco Simeonis", a charter granted by the Bishop of
Tarazona.
The flag and arms of Valdesimonte are prescribed by a Decree adopted
on 17 August 2005 by the Village Council, signed on 9 December 2005 by
the Mayor, and published on 23 December 2005 in the official gazette
of Castilla y León, No. 246, p. 22,033 (text).
The symbols, which were approved by the Chronicler of Arms of Castilla y León, are described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 2:3, white, with a pine at hoist, an oak at fly the two green and eradicated, a blue border of 1/7 of the flag's length, charged with 12 white-pointed stars, five in the upper part, five in the lower part, one at hoist and one at fly.
Coat of arms: Argent a fountain gules masoned sable surmounted by a 12-pointed star azure dexter a pine sinister an oak the two eradicated vert. The shield surmounted with a Spanish Royal crown closed.
The symbols, inaugurated on 23 July 2008, are supported by an
historical memoir written by Juan Cuéllar and a heraldic and
vexillogical memoir written by Vicente Tocino.
On the arms, the fountain represents the Ejido Fountain. The star
represents the Virgin of the Assumption, the village's patron saint.
The trees are autochthonous species, characteristic of the municipal
territory.
[El Norte de Castilla, 23 July 2008]
Ivan Sache, 9 March 2015
