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Last modified: 2020-03-31 by ivan sache
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Flag of El Viso de San Juan - Image by Ivan Sache, 9 September 2019
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The municipality of El Viso de San Juan (4,263 inhabitants in 2015; 5,302 ha; municipal website) is located 40 km north of Toledo.
El Viso was the seat of the Commandery of Olmos, established by the Order of Saint John after the Christian reconquest of the area. The castle of Olmos, of Muslim orign, was granted to the Order in 1144 by King Alfonso VII, together with "the territory between Canales and Calatalifa, with all its places and dependencies, lands, vineyards, mounts, valleys, watercourses, orchards, pastures, and mills". Olmos was resettled by Christians of Mozarab and Castilian origin, Jews, and Mudéjars. The castle was besieged in July 1196 by the Almohad Sultan Yaqub al Mansur, to no avail.
With the progress of the reconquest, the border with the Muslim states was moved far southwards; accordingly, Olmos lost its status of strategic fortress. In 1441, the castle was a stronghold of the opponents to John II, who ordered its demolition after having seized it, leaving only a square tower.
The Order of Saint John transferred the seat of the Commandery, which encompassed El Viso, Carranque and Palomeque, to El Viso.
Ivan Sache, 9 September 2019
The flag (photo) and arms of El Viso de San Juan are prescribed by an Order adopted on 29 October 2015 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on 11 November 2015 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 221, p. 30,297 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: Red panel, rectangular, in proportions 2:3, charged with a white cross and, all over in the center, the municipal coat of arms of the town.
Coat of arms: Azure a castle or masoned and port and windows sable surrounded by two elms argent a base gules an octagonal cross of the Knights of the Order of Saint John a chief quarterly, 1. and 4. Gules a cross argent, 2. and 3. Argent. The shield surmounted by a Royal Spanish crown closed.
The coat of arms includes a rebus of the castle of Olmos (in Spanish, Elms' Castle). The other elements, as well as the flag's general design, are straightforward references to the Order of Saint John.
The graphical design of the coat of arms is credited to Juan Antonio Sánchez Plaza.
[Diario de El Viso de San Juan, 14 November 2015]
Ivan Sache, 9 September 2019
