Last modified: 2017-02-11 by ivan sache
Keywords: aguilar de la frontera |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
![[Flag]](../images/e/es-co-af.gif)
Flag of Aguilar de la Frontera - Image from the Símbolos de Córdoba website, 15 September 2015
See also:
The municipality of Aguilar de la Frontera (13,671 inhabitants in 2013; 16,648 ha; municipal website) is located 50 km south of Córdoba.
Aguilar de la Frontera was the site of the Roman town of Ipagrum, shown on the Antonine Itinerary (3rd century) and on the Ravenna Anonymous Itinerary on the way linking Corduba (Córdoba) to Anticaria (Antequera). Little is known about the town in the pre-Visigothic and Visigothic period: Bishop Sinagius was listed among the attendants to the Elvira Council (4th century), while King Sisebut's Code of Laws lists Epagro as a significant settlement.
Conquered in the 9th century by the Muslims, Ipagrum was renamed Bulay of Poley. Umar ibn Hafsu occupied the place in 890, using it as a base for skirmishes and raids to the Córdoba plain. This forced Emir Abd Allah to seize Bulay in 891, which was the first step to the allegiance of the rebelled Muladi to the Umayyad rulers. Part of the cora of Cabra, Bulay was incorporated in the second half of the 11th century into the Zirid state of Granada.
Bulay surrendered in 1240 to King Ferdinand III the Saint without fighting; accordingly, the Muslim population was allowed to stay in the town, keeping properties and rights. Alfonso X granted the town in 1257 to Alfonso Yánez Dovinal, of Portuguese origin, who promptly changed his name to de Aguilar. The town was resettled with Christian colonists in 1260.
Aguilar was successively ruled by three lineages. The Aguilar lineage ended without male heirs in 1244. Alonso Fernández Coronel, revolted against King Peter I, was expelled from Aguilar in 1353. The Fernández de Córdoba eventually ruled Aguilar from 1370 to the suppression of the feudal system. Alonso Fernández de Córdoba, aka Alonso de Aguilar, controlled the Council of Córdoba and several neighbouring domains. His brother Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Enríquez de Aguilar (1453-1515) was known as the Great Captain; he fought in the Granada War, the 1st Italian War (1496-1497), in the 3rd Turkish-Venetian War (1500) and in the 2nd Italian War (1503), and was appointed Viceroy of Naples (1504-1507).
Aguilar de la Frontera is the birth town of the pharmacist Diego Pérez Giménez (1903-1991; company website), who invented different products during the Civil War, such as a soap against seven-year itch and an oil against louses and nits, mentioned in Camilo José Cela's novel San Camillo 1936 ("Don Hillario eventually got rid of louses using the magic oil [...] prepared according to the formula elaborated by the pharmacist Pérez Giménez in his laboratory at Aguilar de la Frontera"). The pharmacist created in 1950 an analgesic made of salicylic acid, caffein and vitamin B; "Calmante Vitaminado" was the most sold analgesic ever in Spain.
Ivan Sache, 15 September 2015
The flag (photo,
photo) and arms of Aguilar de la Frontera, adopted on 27 March 2003 by the Municipal Council and validated on 24 July 2003 by the Royal Academy of Córdoba, are prescribed by Decree No. 261, adopted on 16 September 2003 by the Government of Andalusia and published on 6 October 2003 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 192, pp. 21,119-21,120 (text). This was confirmed by a Resolution adopted on 30 November 2004 by the Directorate General of the Local Administration and published on 20 December 2004 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 246, pp. 28,986-29,002 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: Of silk or taffeta, rectangular, one and a half longer (from hoist to flay) than wide, white with the municipal coat of arms of Aguilar de la Frontera, whose central axis matches the flag's center.
Coat of arms: An eagle ["águila"] sable - the canting emblem of Aguilar - charged on the breast with a shield or with three fesses gules surmounted by a Ducal coronet and surrounded by a collar of the Golden Fleece with double links interlaced with gems azure flamed gules. The eagle surmounted by a Royal crown closed.
The "rehabilitated" coat of arms is indeed a slightly modified version of the previous coat of arms, the eagle having the wings spread instead of hanging.
The previous coat of arms of Aguilar de la Frontera was prescribed by Decree No. 878, adopted on 23 March 1972 by the Spanish Government and published on 12 April 1972 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 88, pp. 6,509-6,510 (text).
The coat of arms, approved by the Royal Academy of History, is described as follows:
Coat of arms: Or three fesses gules. The shield surmounted by a Ducal coronet and supported by a crowned eagle sable with the Golden Fleece.
White is the traditional colour of the lords of Aguilar.
The coat of arms was designed by Juan Bernier Luque. The eagle and the Golden Fleece represent the lords of Aguilar. The shield represents the arms of the Fernández de Córdoba, The Ducal coronet surmounting the shield recalls the union of the lords of Aguilar with the Dukes of Medinaceli in the 18th century.
[Símbolos de las Entidades Locales de Andalucía. Córdoba (PDF file)]
Ivan Sache, 15 September 2015