![[Flag]](../images/e/es-za-sn.gif)
Last modified: 2015-01-17 by ivan sache
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Flag of Sanzoles - Image by Ivan Sache, 1 March 2011
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The municipality of Sanzoles (600 inhabitants in 2010; 2,566 ha) is located 20 km from Zamora.
Sanzoles is the home of the El Zangarrón festival (26 December), one of the best preserved traditional winter masquerades in Zamora Province. El Zangarrón (photos) is a grotesque character who scours the streets of the village, hitting whoever he can with his stick. The origin of the masquerade is unknown but remote; some say that El Zangarrón is the descendant of a shaman from the Prehistoric times, other relate him to the Roman God Janus. Anyway, the festival is linked to old fertility rituals set up at the turn of the year. The local tradition claims that the masquerade dates back to a procession that aimed at calling St. Stephen's protection against black plague, to no avail; the upset villagers decided to stone the saint's statue, a blaspheme which was prevented by a wise villager who showed up costumed as El Zangarrón and diverted the stoners (El Norte de Castilla, 26 December 2008).
Ivan Sache, 1 March 2011
The flag (photo) and arms of Sanzoles are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 7
May 2001 by the Municipal Council, signed on 12 September
2001 by the Mayor, and published on 24 September 2001 in the official gazette of
Castilla y León, No. 186, p. 13,951 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular flag, with proportions 2:3, made of three equal horizontal stripes, the upper stripe red with a white Cross of St. John of Jerusalem at hoist, the middle stripe white and the lower stripe green.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Gules a Cross of St. John of Jerusalem argent, 2. Vert a bunch of grape or ensigned with three spikes of the same. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown closed.
Ivan Sache, 1 March 2011
