Last modified: 2016-03-20 by ivan sache
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The municipality of Santibáñez de la Peña (1,244 inhabitants in 2010; 11,174 ha; municipal website) is located 100 km from Palencia. The municipality is made of the villages of Aviñante de la Peña (63 inh.), Cornón de la Peña (23 inh.), Las Heras de la Peña (150 inh.), Pino de Viduerna (37 inh.), Santibáñez de la Peña (475 inh.; capital), Tarilonte de la Peña (40 inh.), Velilla de la Peña (57 inh.; until 23 March 2006, Velilla de Tarilonte), Viduerna de la Peña (42 inh.), Villafría de la Peña (21 inh.), Villalbeto de la Peña (11 inh.), Villanueva de Arriba (228 inh.), Villaoliva de la Peña (17 inh.) and Villaverde de la Peña (80 inh.).
Santibáñez de la Peña was settled very early, as evidenced by the
Cantabrian citadel of Loma, discovered in 2003 on the El Castro (The
Castle) height, located in the south of the village. The place,
settled and fortified in the 4th-1st centuries BC, was probably the
most important settlement set up in the region by the Camarici /
Tamarici tribe. Artefacts such as arrow heads and bullets found in the
fortified wall, as well as remains of a blaze, indicate that the
citadel was attacked by the Roman troops during the Cantabrian Wars
that achieved the conquest of Hispania; remains of the camps set up by
the Romans during the siege of the citadel were also found.
Accordingly, the Loma citadel is the most important site related to
the Cantabrian Wars excavated up to now in northern Castile.
The village of Santibáñez de la Peña subsequently developed around the
San Román de Entrepeñas monastery, the parish church being dedicated
in 950 to St. John the Baptist (Sant Iohanes, then Santibáñez). San Román,
including a fort, a monastery and a village, was owned by a Count who
ruled the neighboring area. Later on, the monastery was downgraded to
a priory incorporated into the San Zoilo monastery (Carrión de los Condes); only a
ruined wall recalls the monastery.
The exploitation of coal mines and the set up in 1890 of a railway line made of Santibáñez an industrial village, with several mining companies such as "Minas de Castilla la Vieja y Jaén", "Minas de Villaverde", "C‡ntabro-Asturiana" and "Antracita Palentina". In the 1930s, the increase of the village required the split of the municipality of Respenda de la Peña, then made of 24 villages. Of the 15 villages that formed the new municipality of Santibáñez de la Peña, officially erected on 20 July 1934, only 13 remain today; in the 1950s, the villages of Intorcisa and Muñeca were transferred to the municipality of Guardo (Diario Palentino, 18 July 2009).
Ivan Sache, 3 April 2011
The flag of Santibáñez de la Peña is prescribed by a Decree adopted on
23 March 1998 by the Palencia Provincial Government, signed on 30 March 1998 by the
President of the Government, and published on 20 April
1998 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 73 (text).
The flag is described as follows:
Flag: Quadrangular flag, with proportions 1:1, with horizontal stripes, green and white. In the middle of the flag is placed the municipal coat of arms in full colors.
The Royal Academy of History found no reason not to accept the proposed flag (Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 2000, 197, 1: 172).
The flag in actual use (photo, Diario Palentino, 20 July 2009) appears to be rectangular instead square as prescribed.
Ivan Sache, 3 April 2011