El Gordo (Municipality, Extremadura, Spain)

Last modified: 2020-11-14 by ivan sache
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Flag of El Gordo - Image by Tomislav Todorović, 20 March 2020

• Presentation of El Gordo
• Flag of El Gordo

See also:

• Spain
• Extremadura (Autonomous Community, Spain)
• Province of Cáceres (Extremadura, Autonomous Community, Spain)

Presentation of El Gordo

The municipality of El Gordo (375 inhabitants in 2017; 7,968 ha; municipal website) is located on the border with Castilla-La Mancha (Province of Toledo), 130 km north-east of Cáceres and 20 km est of Navalmoral de la Mata.

El Gordo was once a hamlet of the village of La Puebla de Naciados, which was subsequently abandoned by its inhabitants because of the unproductive land.wBR> The village was transferred in 1833 from the Province of Ávila to the Province of Cáceres. The man-made lake of Valdecuañas, established in 1964, flooded 3,750 ha of the municipal territory, which caused the emigration of 42 families to Madrid, Sabadell, Valencia, Alicante, and the newly founded settlements of Tiétar and Navalmoral.
The odd name of the village (lit., The Fat) refers to the main anthroponym among the original settlers.

Ivan Sache, 20 March 2020

Flag of El Gordo

The flag (photo, photo) and arms of El Gordo, adopted on 29 October 1987 by the Municipal Council and validated on 10 June 1988 by the Royal Academy of History, are prescribed by an Order issued on 21 June 1988 by the Government of Extremadura and published on 28 June 1988 in the official gazette of Extremadura, No. 51, p. 690 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 2:3. A white panel charged in the center with the municipal coat of arms in full colors.
Coat of arms: Vert a jurisdictional pillory [photo] or on four steps of the same cantonned by five storks argent beaked and member gules holding five snakes or in the beak. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.

The coat of arms recalls that El Gordo counts more storks than inhabitants. Some 400 storks permanently live in the village; the nearby lake of Valdecuañas is for them an inextinguished source of food.
[Las Cigüeñas de El Gordo]

Ivan Sache, 20 March 2020