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Last modified: 2015-01-17 by ivan sache
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Flag of Galende - Image by "Nethunter" (Wikimedia Commons), 6 March 2011
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The municipality of Galende (1,308 inhabitants in 2010; 9,026 ha) is located in the northwest of Zamora Province, 120 km from Zamora. The municipality is made of the villages of Cubelo (80 inh.), Galende (131 inh.; capital), Llanes (107 inh.), Moncabril (7 inh.), Pedrazales (62 inh.), El Puente (414 inh.), Rabanillo (55 inh.), Ribadelago (40 inh.), Ribadelago Nuevo (108 inh.), San Martín de Castañeda (161 inh.) and Vigo (209 inh.).
Lake Sanabria (presentation), the biggest glacial lake in the Iberian Peninsula (319 ha) is located on the municipal territory of Galende. The origin of the lake is the matter of a famous local legend:
On a cold wintery day, a man arrived at the village of Valverde de Lucerna. He was starving and asked for something to eat, but the menfolk told him to be gone. They did not want his kind in their village. Some women baking bread took pity on him and gave a few crusts. He bade the women to take to the hills. Then he took his staff and drove into the ground commanding water to rise from the hole. Out it gushed, flooding the village and drowning all the men. The waters continued to rise until the lake was formed. All that remained of the village was the roof tip of the bakery, which now forms the little island in the centre of the lake.
Valverde de Lucerna became famous as the main place of San Manuel Bueno, Mártir, a nivola published in 1930 by Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936).
The Sanabria legend became unfortunately true on 9 January 1959 when the Vega de Tera barrage collapsed, the resulting flood causing the death of 144 out of the 549 inhabitants of Ribadelago. This was the first accident of that kind in Spain and a big failure of Franco's main projects of development of the country. While the original village was not abandoned, a new village was built, "adopted" by Franco and, accordingly, named Ribadelago de Franco; after the end of Franco's rule, the village was renamed Ribadelago Nuevo (New) (La Opinión de Zamora, 4 January 1999).
Ivan Sache, 6 March 2011
The flag and arms of Galende are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 3
May 2000 by the Municipal Council, signed on 1 June 2000 by the Mayor,
and published on 15 June 2000 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 115, p. 7,167 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular flag, with proportions 2:3, made of a blue field with a yellow cross throughout fimbriated red, of 1/3 of the flag's hoist.
Coat of arms: Wavy azure and argent a rhomb gules the apse of the San Martín de Castañeda monastery or masoned sable. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown closed.
The San Martín monastery was founded in the 10th century in Castaneira / Castiñeira by monks exiled from Mazote (Córdoba), probably on the ruins of an early Visigothic monastery. In the 12th century, the monastery belonged to the powerful Cluny Order; in 1150, the monastery adopted the Cistercian reform and was ruled by the Carracedo monastery (León). Appointed abbot, Pedro Cristino guided the revamping of the church and other buildings in Cistercian style.
Ivan Sache, 3 March 2011
