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San Lorenzo de la Parilla (Municipality, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain)

Last modified: 2020-02-17 by ivan sache
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Flag of San Lorenzo de la Parilla - Image by Ivan Sache, 12 July 2019


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Presentation of San Lorenzo de la Parilla

The municipality of San Lorenzo de la Parrilla (1,014 inhabitants in 2018; 5,989 ha) is located 45 km south-west of Cuenca.

San Lorenzo de la Parrilla was, according to Heliodoro Cordente Martínez (Toponimia conquense, 1993) named La Parrilla, as a village established after the Christian reconquest of Cuenca in a place planted with grapevine (parrilla). In the late 16th century or in the early 17th century, after each village had been required to select a single patron saint, the villagers elected St. Lawrence, probably because its attribute, the grill, is also called "parrilla" in Spanish.
La Parrilla incorporated the inhabitants of the depopulated village of Belvis, the former Borjafamel resettled in 1183 by Alfonso VIII.
[Historia y actualidad de San Lorenzo de la Parrilla (Cuenca), 11 March 2015]

Ivan Sache, 12 July 2019


Symbols of San Lorenzo de la Parilla

The flag of San Lorenzo de la Parrilla is prescribed by an Order issued on 8 April 2005 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on 27 April 2005 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 84, p. 8,453 (text).
The flag is described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 2:3, with a blue cross fimbriated in white, the upper hoist and lower fly quarters, yellow, the other, red. Charged in the center with the crowned coat of arms.

The coat of arms of San Lorenzo de la Parrilla is prescribed by an Order issued on 8 April 2005 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on 27 April 2005 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 84, p. 8,453 (text).
The coat of arms is described as follows:

Coat of arms: Quarterly, 1. Or a grill sable, 2. Quarterly per saltire, 1. and 4. Gules a bend vert fimbriated or, 2. and 3. Gules ten hearts argent all over a chain or, 3. Gules a half moon inverted argent a base argent, 4. Or a bend sable. A bordure azure a collar of St. Francis or. The shield surmounted by a Spanish Royal crown.

The Royal Academy of History recommended major modifications to the proposed coat of arms.
The memoir supporting the proposed coat of arms reports that a coat of arms, in use since 1876 as the proper arms of San Lorenzo, features the arms of its feudal lords, Mendoza (House of Cañales), Luna and Sandoval. This coat of arms has "alawys been considered with great affect as a sign of identity of the village". The proposed design added to this relevant arms a grill and also a totally unnecessary bordure, which complexifies the design and has to be dropped.
The Academy further recommanded to re-arrange the four quarters. Adding the grill to the arms of the historical lineage as a fourth quarter is flawed, since they don't have the same character. The Mendoza arms, very complex, fills a quarter in a too dense manner, contrasting with the simple arms of Sandoval. Accordingly, the Academy proposed to adopt "Per fess, 1. Quartered per saltire, 1. and 4. Gules a bend vert fimbriated or, 2. and 3. Gules ten hearts argent, all over a chain or, 2. Per pale, A. Gules a crescent reverted argent a base of the same, 2. Or a bend sable. Inescutcheon Or a grill sable. The shield surmounted by a Royal Spanish crown."
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 202:1. 2005; Historia y actualidad de San Lorenzo de la Parrilla (Cuenca), 30 May 2014]

The arms were proposed in 1989 by Dámaso Ruiz de Clavijo, as reported by Fernando Jiménez and Francisco Calero (San Lorenzo de la Parrilla. Historia y personajes, Chapter 10). They are mostly the reconstruction of a wooden seal ordered in the middle of the 20th cntury by the Municipal Council and to be displayed on the balcony of the Town Hall during solemn events and festival. The study was pushed by Emiliano Moreno, Director of the Colegio Mayor Hispanoamericano Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Madrid, when preparing a commemoration of Friar Pedro Simón, who was born in San Lorenzo.
Based on Dámaso Ruiz de Clavijo's study, José Luis Guerrero Hidalgo drafted different versions of the arms, without bordure but surrounded by the collar of St. Francis, with the bordure and the collar, with the grill placed either in the first of fourth quarter, with a Royal crown or a Ducal coronet. The definitive version was painted by Mr. Sandonis, the college's official painter.
The final design was a mix of the arms of Hurtado de Mendoza, Marquesses of Cañete and lords of La Parrilla and of the arms of the 7th Duke del Infantado. The blue bordure represents river Júcar and its smaller tributaries; the collar of St. Francis is a tribute to Friar Pedro Simón.
[Historia y actualidad de San Lorenzo de la Parrilla (Cuenca), 6 October 2014]

Ivan Sache, 12 July 2019


Proposed symbols of San Lorenzo de la Parilla

[Flag]

Proposed flag of San Lorenzo de la Parilla - Image by Ivan Sache, 12 July 2019

Mariano Hernáiz Valencia pointed out that the supporting memoir is flawed due to several historical errors that were not pointed out by the Royal Academy of History.
The lord of La Parrilla was not the 7th Duke of the Infantado, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar de Sandoval y Mendoza (1614-1657), but Juan Andrés Hurtado de Mendoza, 5th Marquess of Cañete. The Duke of the Infantado was Marquess of Cenete, not of Cañete. This lineage has, therefore, no historical connection with San Lorenzo de la Parrilla.
Another mistake was added in the official description of the arms, swapping the colors of the arms of Hurtado de Mendoza, which were correctly described in the supporting memoir.
[Historia y actualidad de San Lorenzo de la Parrilla (Cuenca), 13 October 2014]

Mariano Hernáiz Valencia further proposed different symbols, arguing that, first, the adopted symbols were not validated by the Royal Academy of History, and, second, the supporting memoir is flawed due to several historical errors that were not pointed out by the Royal Academy of History.
The author proposed to suppress the arms of Luna and Sandoval, which are not historically related to San Lorenzo de la Parrilla, and to keep the arms of the Hurtado de Mendoza, Marquess of Cañete and lords of Parrilla from the end of the 15th century to the early 19th century. The canting quarter featuring a grill sable shall also be kept. As recommended by the Academy, the bordure shall be suppressed.
The adopted flag, seemingly using the colors of the flawed coat of arms and lacking historical justification, shall also be changed. A document dated 9 November 1427 clearly states that La Parrilla depended on the Council of Cuenca. Another document, dated 1464, establishes that the town belonged to Castile. Accordongly, the flag shall have a crimson background, the color of the historical Kingdom of Castile and of Cuenca. The proposed symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 2:3, crimson. Charged in the center with the crowned coat of arms.
Coat of arms: Spanish shield. Quarterly per saltire, 1. and 4. Vert a bend gules fimbriated or, 2. and 3. Gules ten hearts argent (seven visible). Inescutcheon or a grill sable. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown.
[Historia y actualidad de San Lorenzo de la Parrilla (Cuenca), 4 November 2014]

Ivan Sache, 12 July 2019