Last modified: 2015-01-17 by ivan sache
Keywords: pedraza | segovia |
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The municipality of Pedraza (473 inhabitants in 2010; 3,158 ha; municipal website) is located in the north-east of the Segovia Province, 40 km from Segovia.
Pedraza was already settled in the Celtiberian and Roman times; the
theory saying that Emperor Trajan was born there, however, is not
supported by any evidence. In the 11th century, following the
Christian reconquest, Pedraza was made the capital of the Community of
the Village and Land of Pedraza, ruling several neighboring villages.
In the 15th century, Bernardino Fernández de Velasco, Constable of
Castile and the 1st Duke of Frías, became lord of Pedraza, which
became one of the residences of the wealthy Velasco family. The
16th-17th centuries were the Gilded Age of Pedraza, which controlled a
dense networks of transhumance roads used every year by 3 millions
sheep; at the time, the tailors from Segovia were famous all over
Europe, while Castilian wool was exported to Bruges and Florence. The
ship-breeding crisis that broke out in the 19th century boosted the
decadence of Pedraza.
The well-preserved, fortified village of Pedraza has attracted several Spanish and foreign film directors. The first known movie shot in Pedraza was Jaques Catelain's silent movie La galerie des monstres (Gallery of Monsters, 1924), followed a few years later by Florián Rey's La aldea maldita (The Cursed Village, 1929). More recently, Pedraza appeared in Jaime de Armiñán's El amor del capitán Brando (The Love of Captain Brando, 1974, starring Ana Belén) and José Luis Cuerda's Así en el cielo como en la tierra (On Earth as It Is in Heaven, 1995). Orson Welles shot in Pedraza scenes of Campanadas a medianoche (Falstaff, 1965) and of Une histoire immortelle (The Immortal Story, 1968). Some scenes of the French blockbuster La folie des grandeurs (Delusion of Grandeurs, 1971, starring Louis de Funès, Yves Montand and Alice Sapritch) were shot in Pedraza, too.
Ivan Sache, 25 June 2011
The flag and arms of Pedraza are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 6
March 1995 by the Segovia Provincial Government, signed on 9 March 1995 by the
President of the Government, and published on 21 March
1995 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 55 (text).
The symbols are described
as follows:
Flag: Quadrangular flag, with proportions 2:3, red with a yellow cross throughout. In the middle is placed the municipal coat of arms in full colors.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Gules a tower octagonal or masoned sable on rocks argent, 2. Azure a bend or in chief a lion argent. The shield surmounted with a Royal Spanish crown.
Ivan Sache, 25 June 2011
The "Comunidad de Villa y Tierra de Pedraza" (Community of the Town and Land of Pedraza) intermunicipal authority groups the municipalities of Aldealengua de Pedraza, Arahuetes, Arcones, Arevalillo de Cega, Collado Hermoso, El Cubillo, Gallegos, Matabuena, La Matilla, Navafría, Orejana, Pedraza (capital), Puebla de Predraza, Rebollo, Santiuste de Pedraza, Torre Val San Pedro, Valdevacas y Guijar and Valleruela de Pedraza.
The flag and arms of Comunidad de Villa y Tierra de Pedraza are
prescribed by a Decree adopted on 7 March 1995 by the Segovia
Provincial Government, signed on 9
March 1995 by the President of the Government, and published on 21 March 1995 in the official gazette of
Castilla y León, No. 55 (text).
The symbols are described
as follows:
Flag: Quadrangular flag, with proportions 1:1, yellow with a red tower in the middle, port and windows azure, supported by two black lions.
Coat of arms: Or a tower gules masoned sable port and windows azure supported by two lions sable. The shield surmounted with a Royal Spanish crown.
Ivan Sache, 25 June 2011
