Last modified: 2015-01-17 by ivan sache
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![[Flag]](../images/e/es-av-pa.gif)
Flag of Padiernos - Image by "Nethunter" (Wikimedia Commons), slightly modified, 9 March 2011
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The municipality of Padiernos (256 inhabitants in 2010; 3,700 ha; unofficial website) is located in the center of Ávila Province, 15 km of Ávila. The municipality is made of the villages of Aldealabad, Muñochas and Padiernos (capital).
Padiernos remotely originates in a citadel built by the Vettones, a Celtic cattle-herder people (4th-3rd century BC) in the place called today El Castro del Castillejas; discovered and excavated in 1929 by Claudio Sánchez Albornoz, the citadel, covering a 650 m x 250 m area, was protected by a 2,250 m long wall, of which little has remained. The dwelling included (at least) 17 huts of different size, unevenly scattered inside the walls. Pieces of ceramics with hand-made bicolour decoration seem to be very specific of the place; other artefacts such as bronze tools and jewels, stone axes and a few arrow heads have also been found. Two stone verracos (boars) statues characteristic of the Vetton culture have be found in Muñochas and Aldealabad. The citadel was abandoned in the 4th century BC, probably to move to the better situated citadel of Chamartín, which has a similar design and was dated later than the Padiernos citadel.
After the Roman conquest, a lord Paternus - a name common in the local Roman epigraphic sources - might have founded an estate named Villa Paterna, therefore the origin of the village's name; Roman remains have indeed been founded in the places called Cinco Villas and Las Campanillas, still to be excavated in detail. The fountain located in the upper part of the village square, unfortunately destroyed in the middle of the 20th century, was indeed of Roman origin.
The resettlement campaign that started after the reconquest of Toledo in 1085 by King Alfonso VI supports a second possible etymology of the village name, which would have been derived from a resettler named Paderno. Most of the villages of the area were indeed named for their resettlers. However, the popular tradition says that the village was named after ¡Paz yernos! (Peace, son-in-laws), recalling two brothers who struggled for the domain of their rich father-in-law. A document dated 6 July 1250 mentions El Aldea del Abat (lit. the Abbot's Village, Aldealabad), Munno Aita (The Father's Domain or Muno's Domain, Muñochas), and Santa María de Muñonuño (Padiernos); the name of Padiernos appeared only in 1303.
Ivan Sache, 9 March 2011
The flag and arms of Padiernos are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 13 July 2000 by the Municipal Council, signed on 27 July 2000 by the Mayor, and published on 23 August 2000 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 163, pp. 10,138-10,139 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular flag, with proportions 2:3, made of three horizontal stripes with proportions 10:18, 1:18 and 7:18, the upper stripe purple with three yellow five-pointed stars placed 2 and 1 at 1/3 of the hoist, the middle stripe yellow and the lower stripe purple.
Coat of arms: Purpure a holly oak eradicated argent orled with two spikes or and two five-pointed stars of the same two in chief and one in base. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown closed.
Ivan Sache, 9 March 2011
