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Cobos de Cerrato (Municipality, Castilla y León, Spain)

Flag of Cobos de Cerrato - Image by "Valdavia" (Wikimedia Commons), 4 February 2011

Presentation of Cobos de Cerrato
Symbols of Cobos de Cerrato

See also:

Presentation of Cobos de Cerrato

The municipality of Cobos de Cerrato (182 inhabitants in 2009; 4,651 ha; unofficial website) is located in the south-east of Palencia Province, 50 km from Palencia. The municipality is made of the villages of Cobo del Cerrato (capital) and San Juan de los Castellanos.

Cobos de Cerrato means either "a place with round towers" (cubos, listed as Covo in 1081) or "a place with caves" (cuevas, listed as Cuevas in 1352). "de Cerrato" refers to the name of the region, derived from from Latin cirratus, "a hilly area". The village was also listed as Las Cuevas del Río Franco, referring to river Franco, whose name must recall the Frankish invasions of the late 3rd century.
In 1074, Castellanos and Seoguela (the deserted village of Sequilla) belonged to the alfoz (group of villages) of Palenzuela; in 1081, García and Eldoara Gundisalbiz bequeathed to the San Pedro de Cardeña monastery a vineyard located in Covo (Cobos de Cerrato).
In the 18th century, the rule over Cobos de Cerrato was disputed between the Duchess of Alba and the Count of Benavente, who eventually won the case at the Royal Council.

Ivan Sache, 4 February 2011

Symbols of Cobos de Cerrato

The flag and arms of Cobos de Cerrato, designed by Vincent Tocino Letrado, are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 31 January 2002 by the Municipal Council, signed on 5 February 2002 by the Mayor, and published on 20 February 2002 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 36, p. 2,559 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular flag with proportions 2:3, divided by a wavy stripe running from the lower hoist to the upper fly, at hoist yellow with three black caves 2 + 1, at fly green.
Coat of arms: Per pale wavy azure fimbriated argent, 1. Gules three caves argent per pale, 2. Vert an ewe argent ensigned with three spikes or. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown closed.

Since no historical record of any arms or seal used by the village was found, the arms were designed from scratch. The author proposed (document dated 3 September 2001) to represent on the arms a wavy terrace to symbolize the Cerrato hills, heraldic caves in Castilian- Leonese colors (gules and argent) to recall the etymology of Cobos, spikes, or an ewe or an oak, to represent the natural resources of the municipality.
Tocino made two proposals:
No.1. "Argent an oak eradicated vert surrounded dexter and sinister by spikes of the same a terrace wavy vert three caves argent per fess. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown closed."
No. 2. [The adopted design]

He also made two flag proposals:
No. 1. [The adopted design]

Rejected flag proposal - Image by Ivan Sache, 4 February 2011

No. 2. Rectangular flag with proportions 2:3, made of five horizontal stripes with proportions 2:10, 1:10, 4:10, 1:10 and 2:10, from top to bottom, yellow, blue, white, blue and yellow.

Ivan Sache, 4 February 2011