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Abades (Municipality, Castilla y León, Spain)

Flag of Abades - Image by Eugene Ipavec, 15 January 2009

Presentation of Abades
Symbols of Abades

See also:

Presentation of Abades

The municipality of Abades (893 inhabitants in 2010; 3,198 ha; municipal website) is located in the southwest of Segovia Province, 15 km from Segovia. The municipality is made of the villages of Abades (capital) and Perocojo.

Abades was mentioned for the first time in 1116 as Abbatibus in a charter of the Segovia Council granting the parish church to Pedro, Bishop of Segovia; the village appeared again in 1247 as Abbades. The village is named for abad, from Latin abbas, abbatis, "a priest". From the 13th century onwards, the word abad was used to designate the head of a monastery, that is an abbot. Beforehand, the word was used to designate any clerk. It seems that Abades was named for the place where all the local priests gather to hold a council; a book kept in the parish archives, entitled Vicaria 1599 (Curacy 1599), lists the 16 parishes forming the "curacy", here a priest's association. A small cemetery located near the church, but distinct from the village's cemetery, must have been the curacy's cemetery.

Ivan Sache, 1 May 2011

Symbols of Abades

The flag and arms of Abades (municipal website) are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 21 May 1996 by the Segovia Provincial Government, signed on 10 September 1996 by the President of the Government, and published on 19 September 1996 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 182 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Quadrangular, with proportions 1:1, red with a white saltire. In the middle of the flag is placed the municipal coat of arms in full colors.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Azure an abbot [abad]'s crozier argent, 2. Gules a two-staged aqueduct argent masoned sable over rocks argent, grafted in base or a grill sable. The shield surmounted with a Royal Spanish crown.

The first quarter recalls the Bishop of Segovia (but the description mentions an abbot's cross, more or less related to the name of the village). The second quarter recalls that Abades belonged to the Community of the Town and Land of Segovia. The base alludes to St. Lawrence, the patron saint of the village.

The Royal Academy of History accepted the proposed arms "without any difficulty" and found the proposed flag "acceptable, as well" (Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 1997, 194, 2: 403).

Ivan Sache, 1 May 2011