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Rute (Municipality, Andalusia, Spain)

Flag of Rute - Image from the Símbolos de Córdoba website, 21 September 2015

Presentation of Rute
Symbols of Rute

See also:

Presentation of Rute

The municipality of Rute (10,560 inhabitants in 2012; 13,240 ha; municipal website) is located on the border with the Province of Málaga, 100 km south-east of Córdoba. The municipality is made of the town of Rute and of the villages of Zambra, Nacimiento de Zambra, La Hoz, Llanos de Don Juan and Las Piedras - Palomares. Rute is known as Anis Town.

Rute has not yielded remains from the Iberian and Roman periods, while Zambra has been identified with the old town of Cisimbrium; the columns of the portico of the parish church are indeed of Roman origin.
The watch tower of Rute was probably erected by the Nasrid kings of Granada. There was probably also a castle nearby, not mentioned in Ferdinand III's sharing of the lands reconquerred from the Moors; this means that the Christians could not seize the fortress or could not keep it for a long period. On 25 June 1280, Alfonso X authorized the garrison of the castle of Tiñosa to withdraw, because of the threat exerted by the "Moors from Rute".
During the Granada Civil War, Nasr asked the support of Infante Peter, tutor of Alfonso XI, against his brother Muhammad III; this could not prevent Nasr to be overthrown and the fortress of Rute to be seized by the Christians after a three-days siege. After the battle of Elvira, lost by the Christians on 26 June 1319, Rute might have been transferred again to the Moors, as ratified by the Peace of Baena (1320).
Back again in 1341, Alfonso XI seized the fortress of Alcalá la Real, moved from Priego to Carcabuey, where he seized the castle, and eventually conquered Rute. The campaign was most probably of great significance, since it was reported in great details in several chronicles. Ruiz Yáñez explained that the king himself led the troops and that the Moors withdrew from the castle of Rute when they saw the big army marching against them. One century later, Juan de Mena recalled the victorious campaign in the Laberinto de la Fortuna.

After the death in 1369 of Peter I of Castile in the battle of Montiel, his friend, King of Granada Muhammad V, defeated the armies of Henry II and seized several fortresses, Rute included. Rute was eventually incorporated to the Kingdom of Castile in the first third of the 15th century. Ramiro Yañez de Barrionuevo, the conqueror of the fortress, was granted a domain made of Rute and Zambra by John II; the charter, signed on 18 November 1434 in Madrid and ratified on 28 February 1434 in Valladolid, required the lord to re-settle the place with Christian colonists. The re-settlement was very slow because Rute, located on the dangerous border with the Kingdom of Granada, was still threatened by Moorish raids. Fernando de Barrionuevo supported Infante Alfonso against King Henry IV, who cancelled the grant of the domain; Rute and Zambra were transferred to Diego Fernández de Córdoba, Count of Cabra, by a Royal Privilege signed on 23 October 1466 in Segovia. Shortly after, the Count founded the abbey of Rute, which boosted the growth of the town and its transfer to its today's location. Juan Fernández de Córdoba, abbot and second lord of Rute and considered as the benefactor of the town, established colonists from Segovia, Iznájar and Lucena; he founded on 3 May 1564 a free market and built on 2 June 1571 a grain barn.

Rute has gained some literary fame. The town is the birth place of the writer Juan de Aguilar (1577-1634), who was a friend of the abbot of Rute and of the writer Luis de Góngora. The two friends competed in the contest organized in Córdoba for the beatification of St. Teresa of Ávila, with Juan de Aguilar as the winner. Lope de Vega maintained a long correspondence with Juan de Aguilar, and expressed his admiration for him in Laurel de Apolo.
Abbot Francisco Fernández de Córdoba (d. 1626) was canon archivist at the Córdoba cathedral; he was member of the Town Council together with Luis de Góngora and a friend of Pablo de Céspedes; his main work was Historia y descripción de la Antigüedad y descendencia de la Casa de Córdoba.
Cervantes promoted the local ham in two of the Exemplary Novels, El Casamiento Engañoso and La Gran Sultana Doña Catalina de Oviedo.

Ivan Sache, 21 September 2015

Symbols of Rute

The flag of Rute (photo, photo, photo), adopted on 1 March 1994 by the Municipal Council, is prescribed by Decree No. 148, adopted on 6 June 1995 by the Government of Andalusia and published on 27 July 1995 in the official gazette of Andalusia, No. 105, p. 7,341 (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 flag is prescribed as follows:

Flag: Rectangular in proportions 2:3, made of three vertical stripes parallel to each other and to the hoist, the first, yellow, the second, white, and the third, green. The white stripe twice longer as the extreme ones and charged in the center, which is also the center of the flag, with the municipal coat of arms of Rute.

The meaning of the colours is given in the municipal anthem (lyrics by Ana Burguillos Arenas, music by Miguel Herrero Martos): Gold, whitewashing and hope is my flag,
Sun, whiteness and Andalusia's greenness
That flower with love in spring.

The coat of arms of Rute is prescribed by Decree No. 679, adopted on 25 March 1971 by the Spanish Government and published on 6 April 1971 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 82, p. 5,624 (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 coat of arms, approved by the Royal Academy of History, is described as follows:

Coat of arms: Vert a tower or masoned sable port and windows gules ensigned with a six-pointed star argent and flying two flags of the same. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown.

The coat of arms was designed by Vicente de Cadenas y Vicent.
The tower with the two white flags might recall the surrender of the Moorish fortress in 1240 or represent a signalling tower.
[Símbolos de Córdoba website]

The municipal website adds to the blazon the letters "R" and "T" placed in pale dexter to the tower and "U" and "E" placed sinister to the tower, all or, forming the municipality's name, and two angels proper winged purpure veiled azure supporting the shield.

Ivan Sache, 21 September 2015