Last modified: 2020-10-23 by ivan sache
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![[Flag]](../images/e/es-ba-fm.gif)
Flag of Fuenlabrada de los Montes - Image by Ivan Sache, 15 March 2020
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The municipality of Fuenlabrada de los Montes (1,845 inhabitants in 2019; 19,100 ha; municipal website) is located 200 km east of Badajoz and 15 km east of Herrera del Duque.
Fuenlabrada de los Montes was purchased in 1245, as Fuentlabrada, from King Ferdinand III by the Council of Toledo. in 1445, the area was granted to Gutierre de Sotomayor, Master of the Order of Alcántara, Count of Belalcázar and Viscount of Puebla de Alcocer. Different attemtps of re-settlement by the Council of Toledo had little success. The commonly found family name Calabrés may come from Calabria, a town from the old Kingdom of León, now in Portugal. An alternative hypothesis refers to Calabria and alleged involvemnt of soldiers from Fuenlabrada in the Italian Wars under the command of the Great Captain, Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba.
The town was renamed from Fuentlabrada to Fuenlabrada in the 16the century, to be eventually renamed to Fuenlabrada de los Montes in the 18the century.
Fuenlbrada is the birth town of Friar Buenaventura de Fuentlabrada, a Franciscan evangelizer of Veracruz (Mexico) and of Captain Alonso de Fuentlabrada, one of the founders of the town of Calí (Colombia).
Ivan Sache, 15 March 2020
The flag and arms of Fuenlabrada de los Montes, adopted on 23 June 1998 by the Municipal Council and validated on 5 October 1998 by the Assessing Council of Honors and Distinctions of the Government of Extremadura, are prescribed by an Order issued on 21 October 1998 by the Government of Extremadura and published on 31 October 1998 in the official gazette of Extremadura, No. 125, pp. 7,964-7,965 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 2:3. Horizontally divided in seven parts; the first, third, fourth, fifth and seventh, white, the second, blue, and the sixth, red. Charged in the center with the coat of arms in full colors.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Azure a fountain argent over waves azure and argent surmounted by a feminine human figure holding a swan argent, 2. Argent a pillory on steps gules. Grafted in base, Or a bee sable. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.
The fountain erected in the 19the century on the town's main square is locally known as "la Niña" (the Maiden) of "la Morita".
The St. Ann's pillory, a granite column standing on steps erected at the entrance of the town, recalls the status of villa granted to the town in 1489.
[La Siberia - Extremadura]
The bee emphasizes Fuenlabrada's nicknames, Honey's Village ("El pueblo de la miel"). Local honey was already recorded in 1500. The Ensanada Cadaster (1753) reports that bee-keeping was one of the main sources of income in Fuenlabrada; the villagers managed 5,000 bee-hives on the municipal territory and another 10,000 in neighboring places.
Today, honey production represents 65% of the town's income. The 400 local bee-keepers manage 170,000 bee-hives that produce more than 3,000 t honey per year, that is, 10-15% of the Spanish honey harvest.
[Municipal website]
Ivan Sache, 15 March 2020