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La Pola de Gordón (Municipality, Castilla y León, Spain)

Flag of La Pola de Gordón, left, as used, right, as prescribed - Images by "JGaray" (Wikimedia Commons), slightly modified, 17 February 2015

Presentation of La Pola de Gordón
Symbols of La Pola de Gordón
Submunicipal entities

See also:

Presentation of La Pola de Gordón

The municipality of La Pola de Gordón (4,077 inhabitants in 2009; 15,764 ha; municipal website) is located in the north of the Province of León, 30 km of León. The municipality is made ofthe villages of Los Barrios de Gordón (95 inh.), Beberino (68 inh.), Buiza (91 inh.), Cabornera (79 inh.), Ciñera (895 inh.), Folledo (35 inh.), Geras (84 inh.), Huergas de Gordón (115 inh.), Llombera (82 inh.), Nocedo de Gordón (42 inh.), Paradilla de Gordón (5 inh.), Peredilla (77 inh.), La Pola de Gordón (capital), Santa Lucía (554 inh.), Vega de Gordón (113 inh.), La Vid (190 inh.), and Villasimpliz (92 inh.). The region has been known for ages, and is still known, as the Gordón Council (Concejo de Gordón). Here, pola is the local form of pueblo, "a village".

There is no known written history of the area before the Reconquest, except a few mentions in historical chronicles. The Land of Gordón is listed among the privileges granted in 876 by Pope John VIII to the church of Oviedo; the region was probably named for the famous Gordón castle watching a narrow pass commanding access to the Kingdom of Asturias. Alfonso the Wise's chronicle recalls that the Moorish ruler Al-Mansur (938-1002) besieged the castle, to no avail (Mas pero a Gordón non lo priso). Around 1220, King of León Alfonso IX started to dismantle the castle to calm down his neighbor, the King of Castile; the last remains of the castle were eventually suppressed in 1811.

Ivan Sache, 28 August 2010

Symbols of La Pola de Gordón

The flag of La Pola de Gordón (municipal website) is prescribed by a Decree adopted on 23 June 1998 by the León Provincial Government, signed on the same day by the President of the Government, and published on 29 July 1998 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 143 (text).
The flag is described as follows:

Flag: Quadrangular flag, with proportions 1:1, made of a blue panel with a white cross of 1/3 the flag's hoist. In the center of the flag is placed the municipal coat of arms.

The coat of arms of La Pola de Gordón is prescribed by Royal Decree No. 2,430, signed on 27 August 1977 and published on 23 September 1977 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 228, p. 21,332 (text).
The coat of arms is described as follows:

Coat of arms: Azure a lion or adextered a castle argent masoned sable. A bordure argent inscribed with "Mas perio a Gordón non lo priso" in letters sable. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.

The Decree was corrected by an erratum published on 15 February 1978 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 39, p. 3,759 (text). "perio" should read "pero".
The coat of arms (municipal website) was proposed by Gordón-born Francisco Escobar García, priest and professor at the University of Oviedo, in a memoir submitted to the Royal Academy of History. On 25 June 1976, the Academy validated the proposal, amended to "Azure a lion or a castle argent masoned sable with a lion or sinister. The shield surmounted by a Royal closed crown", therefore recommending to omit the border with the motto. The municipality appealed the recommendation, which was reverted on 25 July 1977. The charges and the motto, meaning "Gordón was not seized, either", recall Gordón castle and its resistance to Al-Mansur's siege.

The flag in actual use (video) is rectangular, and not square as prescribed.

Ivan Sache, 17 February 2015

Submunicipal entities

Cabornera

Flag of Cabornera - Image by Ivan Sache, 10 April 2011

Cabornera, located 5.5 km of the village of Pola de Gordón, was mentioned for the first time in a charter dated 1152. The next document confirming the name and localization of the village is another charter dated 1304. Madoz' Dictionary (1850) mentions in Cabornera a famous healing source of iron-bearing water, then called the Friar's Fountain (Fuente del Fraile).

The flag and arms of Cabornera are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 21 February 2010 by the Village Council, signed on 17 August 2010 by the Village Mayor, and published on 24 August 2010 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 163, p. 6,640 (text).
The symbols, which were validated by the Chronicler of Arms of Castilla y León, are described as follows:

Flag: Square flag with proportions 1:1, made of two equal horizontal stripes, the upper stripe blue and the lower stripe yellow. In the middle of the flag is placed the village's coat of arms in full colors.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Gules a cave or, 2. Azure a fountain argent. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown closed.

The cavern recalls the probable Asturian etymology of Cabornera while the fountain recalls the Friar's Fountain.

Ivan Sache, 10 April 2011

Ciñera

Flag of Ciñera, left, as used, right, as prescribed - Images by Antonio Gutiérrez (Vexileéon website), 17 February 2015

Ciñera is considered as the youngest village in León Province, since it gained municipal autonomy only in 1925, separating from La Vid.
Ciñera was first mentioned, as Villa Cennera, on a privilege signed on 9 May 1176 by Pope Alexander III. Another document, dated 1301, lists Johan Perez as the oldest known inhabitant of the village. The memorial of the charters of La Vid, dated 1313, mentions a grain mill located in Ceñera.
In 1805, La Vid, Ciñera included, and Villasimpliz were transferred from Vegacervera to the Gordón Council. Coal extraction started in Ciñera in 1874 when Sotero Rico established the Las Bernesgas mine; Escobar (Nomenclátor de la Dirección General del Instituto Geográfico y Estadístico, Vol. 6, 1877) describes the hamlet of Minas de Ciñera as composed of seven houses. In 1900, Francisco Miñón Quijano sold the Bernesgas 3 mine to Hulleras de Ciñera, a mining company recently incorporated in Brussels. The bigger company Hullera Vasco-Leonesa purchased Hulleras de Ciñera in 1910 and industrialized the extraction of coal. The Ibarra shaft, named for José Antonio de Ibarra, President of the company, was inaugurated in November 1930.
Coal mining boosted the development of the village, whose population swiftly increased up to 1,500 in 1957, Ciñera being the most populous village in the municipality. The mining company built additional workers' estates in the south-east of the village in 1945-1949 (192 houses) and 1957-1961 (150 houses). The Ciñera mines, considered as among the most productive in León Province, were visited twice by Francisco Franco, on 18 September 1962, and 20 November 1975. The Ibarra shaft was often damaged by flooding; the flood that occurred on 20-21 January 1996 caused the eventual closure of the mine on 20 December 1996. The Ibarra shaft was declared of Cultural (Ethnological) Interest on 15 September 2011 by the Government of Castilla y León.
[José Andrés González Pedraza, Memoria y recuerdo del pozo Ibarra en el archivo de Hullera Vasco-Leonesa]

The flag and arms of Ciñera are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 13 January 2012 by the Village Council, signed on the same day by the Mayor, and published on 26 January 2012 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 18, p. 4,920 (text).
The symbols, which were validated by the Chronicler of Arms of Castilla y León, are described as follows:

Flag: Square, in proportions 1:1, made of a plain white panel charged in upper hoist's canton with the coat of arms in full colours.
Coat of arms: Gules a headframe argent masoned sable. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown closed.

The memoir supporting the symbols, written by by Pío Cimadevilla Sánchez, was presented on 8 July 2011 to the Village Council.
The flag officially hoisted on 12 February 2012, by cold, windy weather (video), is rectangular, and not square as prescribed.

White is a symbol of purity.
The headframe is modelled on the Ibarra headframe, which is the emblem of the village. The Ibarra headframe (photo) was 31.3 m in high and weighted 60 tons. The headframe is a parallelepipedic tower made of two iron columns, supported by another two buttresses. The columns are connected by steel consoles riveted together.

Ivan Sache, 17 February 2015

Vega de Gordón

Flag of Vega de Gordón - Image by "Erlenmeyer" (Wikimedia Commons), 10 March 2015

The flag and arms of Vega de Gord—n are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 16 April 2010 by the Village Council, signed on 19 April 2010 by the Mayor, and published on 3 May 2010 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. No. 82, p. 37,032 (text).
The symbols, which were validated by the Chronicler of Arms of Castilla y León, are described as follows:

Flag: Square, in proportions 1:1, made of two vertical stripes separated by a three-pointed serration, the stripe at hoist, blue and covering 1/4 of the flag, the stripe at fly, white and covering 3/4 of the flag, all over the coat of arms in full colours.
Coat of arms: Per pale serrated of three pieces, 1. Azure, 2. Argent a forcao proper. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown closed.

The symbols, designed by Pio Cimadevilla, were unveiled on 17 August 2010 (Diario de León, 18 August 2010).

Ivan Sache, 10 March 2015