Last modified: 2016-12-24 by ivan sache
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![[Flag]](../images/e/es-m-tca.gif)
Flag of Torrejón de la Calzada - Image by Ivan Sache, 27 July 2015
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The municipality of Torrejón de la Calzada (7,739 inhabitants in 2014; 898 ha; municipal website) is located in the south of the Community of Madrid, on the border with Castilla-La Mancha (Province of Toledo), 25 km of Madrid. The municipality experienced a demographic boom at the end of the 20th century, its population increasing from 748 inhabitants in 1981 to 4,890 in 2001.
Torrejón de la Calzada is named for a watching tower (torre), part of the defence system that protected the causeway (calzada) connecting Toledo to Madrid, Alcalá de Henares and Guadalajara.
Probably established at the end of the 11th century, after the conquest of Toledo by Alfonso VI (1085), Torrejón de la Calzada was listed as deserted at the end of the 15th century. This was probably caused by the weakness of the royal power and the increasing influence of the feudal lords, which prompted the villagers to leave the royal towns for feudal towns, much better protected. The neighbouring royal towns of Humanemos, Loranca, Fragacedos and Alba felt deserted at the same time, while the feudal towns of Parla, Humanes, Pinto and Torrejón de Velasco thrived. In the beginning of the 16th century, the Council of Madrid re-settled the deserted settlements placed under its jurisdiction, taking advantage of the re-establishment of a strong royal power by the Catholic Monarchs. While Fregacedo (1480-1520) and Humanejos (1480-1650) were short-lived, Torrejón de la Calzada subsisted until now, in spite of the small area of its territory, and, therefore, of its limited population.
On 3 August 1531, the Council of Torrejón de la Calzada required assistance from the Council of Madrid against Juan Arias Dávila, Count of Puñoenrostro, who planned to re-settle the "deserted" town of Torrejoncillo de la Calzada with colonists from Torrejón de Velasco, led by Francisco de Pero Abad and Bartolomé de Harija. The outcome of the lawsuit between the Council of Madrid and the Count of Puñoenrostro is not known; however, Torrejón de la Calzada was documented in subsequent sources as a village counting between 20 and 40 inhabitants. The villagers attempted to increase their territory in 1650, when Humanemos was declared deserted, which caused another lawsuit with Parla; the conflict ended only at the end of the 18th century, the disputed territory being eventually assigned to Parla.
Ivan Sache, 27 July 2015
The flag of Torrejón de la Calzada (photos, photo,
photo) is described in Article 160 of the Municipal Constitution, adopted on 18 January 2008 by the Municipal Council (8 vote for, 4 abstained) and published on 4 April 2008 in the official gazette of the Community of Madrid, No. 80, pp. 98-116 (text). The flag does not appear to have been officially approved.
The flag is described as follows:
Flag: In proportions 2:3, crimson red - the colour of the banner of Castile -, with the municipal coat of arms in the center.
The coat of arms of Torrejón de la Calzada is prescribed by a Decree adopted on 4 March 1992 by the Government of the Community of Madrid and published on 8 April 1992 in the official gazette of the Community of Madrid, No. 84, p. 6 (text), and on 27 May 1992 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 127, p. 18,152 (text).
The coat of arms is described as follows:
Coat of arms: Per fess, 1. Azure a fess argent surrounded by two fesses dimitiated of the same all over an eagle or, 2. Gules a castle or a bordure or. The shield surmounted with a Royal Spanish crown.
The description of the coat of arms is repeated in Article 158 of the aforementioned Municipal Constitution.
The Royal Academy of History suggested modifications to the proposed arms. In the original blazon, the charge of the first quarter is described as a causeway [calzada] argent. The Academy recommended to suppress the Imperial eagle, for the sake of simplicity. The second quarter is made of the arms of Francisco Abad, founder of the town.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 1988, 185:1, 177]
Ivan Sache, 27 July 2015