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Truchas (Municipality, Castilla y León, Spain)

Flag of Truchas - Image by Antonio Gutiérrez (VexiLeón website), 2 May 2011

Presentation of Truchas
Symbols of Truchas

See also:

Presentation of Truchas

The municipality of Truchas (504 inhabitants in 2010; 30,138 ha) is located in the southeast of León Province, on the border with Zamora Province, 110 km of León. The municipality is made of the villages of Baillo, Corporales, La Cuesta, Cunas, Iruela, Manzaneda, Pozos, Quintanilla de Yuso, Truchas (capital), Truchillas, Valdavido, Villar del Monte and Villarino.

Truchas ("trouts") is named, according to local legends, for druids (druidas), and not for the trouts found in the local rivers and lakes. Lake Truchillas (1,066 ha) has been registered on 11 October 1990 as a "Natural Monument" by the Government of Castile and León.

Ivan Sache, 2 May 2011

Symbols of Truchas

The flag and arms of Truchas are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 28 January 1998 by the León Provincial Government, signed on 11 February 1998 by the President of the Government, and published on 4 March 1998 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 43 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: With proportions 1:1, white. In the middle of the flag is placed the municipal coat of arms in full color.
Coat of arms: Per fess, 1. Or two goats passant sable, 2. Azure a tower argent masoned sable. The shield surmounted with a Royal Spanish crown.

The goats (cabras) must allude to the Cabrera region, where Truchas is located.

The Royal Academy of History pointed out significant flaws in the historic and heraldic memoir supporting the proposed symbols. The memoir deals with the Leonese region of Cabrera instead of the municipality of Truchas; the drawing reproduced on different pages does not match the written description, omitting the bordure of the shield. The Academy disliked as a "rash novelty" the use of a helmet and mantling around the shield, the quarters based on fantasy, such as the arms of the "Counts of Cabrera and Ribera", as well as the unexplained charges in the bordure. The adequate combination of the tower and the goats would form a design "adequate and completely matching the good style" (the recommendation appears to have been eventually accepted).
The proposed flag is acceptable, provided the arms are corrected (Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 1998, 195, 2: 373).

Ivan Sache, 2 May 2011