Last modified: 2015-07-28 by ivan sache
Keywords: navas de riofrío | segovia |
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The municipality of Navas de Riofrío is located in the Province of Segovia, Castile and Leon. Mentioned for the first time in 1247, the village was probably founded much earlier, probably in the XI-XIIth centuries, when the northern side of the Sierra del Guadarrama was resettled. Like in other places of the province, the first colonists were probably Basques, as shown by the toponyms.
Historians believe that the name of the village (in Spanish, "plains") comes from Basque "naba," "a lowland" or "a plain." The Romanesque entrance of the parish church is the only trace of that period; a legend says it was taken from an hermitage located in Cepones, but historical data show that Cepones was uninhabited until the XVIth century. Navas de Riofrío might have been in the XIIth century one of the scattered villages that formed Segovia, as described by the Arab geographer Al-Idrisi.
In 1256, King Alfonso X the Wise reorganized Segovia in six "sexmos:" Navas de Riofrío was incorporated into the "quadrilla" of Hontoria, which formed the smallest component of the "sexmo" of San Millán. Navas de Riofrío obtained the status of municipality only in 1983. On 21 February 1983, the Council of Castile and Leon approved the secession of Navas de Riofrío from the municipality of La Losa, to which it had been incorporated by Royal Decree on 30 January 1872; beforehand, it was part of the municipality of Revenga.
Source: "Historia de Navas de Riofrío," by Pilar Rivas Quinzaños (full text available at municipal website
Ivan Sache, 13 Oct 2008
Álvaro Pinela reports in "El Adelantado de Segovia" that Navas de Riofrío shall adopt soon a flag and arms. According to a colour picture from the public exhibition of the proposed symbols, the flag should be vertically divided blue-white-green with the municipal coat of arms in the middle. The colours represent the most common elements of the local landscape, blue for the sky, white for the snowy mountains and green for the evergreen fields.
At least three proposals are shown for the coat of arms, unfortunately too small to describe them accurately. The text of the article says that the coat of arms should show attributes related to the geography and history of the village, such as sheep breeding, very significant in the XVIIIth century; the San Antolín hermitage, built in 1733; the parish church and its Romanesque entrance; pines, "canting" for a plain; and a river, "canting" for the river Riofrío. The Municipal Council shall select the symbols next December.
Source: El Adelantado de Segovia
Ivan Sache, 13 Oct 2008
