Last modified: 2015-01-17 by ivan sache
Keywords: villaviudas | palencia |
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The municipality of Villaviudas (389 inhabitants in 2010; 3,736 ha; municipal website) is located 20 km from Palencia.
Villaviudas was named, according to the local tradition, after a
bloody battle during which most men of the village were killed,
leaving only widows (viudas). A more serious hypothesis relates
"viudas" to a 10th century resettler of Mozarab origin, Uibdas or
Vibdas / Vibdal. The village was indeed listed in a donation signed in
1181 by King Alfonso as Villa Vibdas.
The place was inhabited much earlier, as evidenced by a sword from the
Age of Bronze found in a necropolis excavated near the village
(Rodriguez JA, Rojo Guerra M, Fernandez JM, 1987. Boletín del
Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología, 54, 219-223); a 2nd-3rd century Roman estate (villa) with geometric mosaics and bronze
artefacts was located in 1975 between Villaviudas and Reinoso de Cerrato.
Ivan Sache, 7 February 2011
The flag and arms of Villaviudas are prescribed by a Decree adopted on
3 November 2000 by the Municipal Council and
published on 21 February 2001 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 37, p. 2,996 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular flag with proportions 2:3, made of two vertical stripes with proportions 1:3 and 2:3, red at hoist and seven equal wavy stripes at fly, four white and three blue.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Gules a palace or ensigned with a Marquis' coronet of the same, 2. Or three spikes vert, grafted in base waves azure and argent. The shield surmounted with a Royal Spanish crown closed.
The palace and the crown recall Marquis of San Vicente, lord of Villaviudas in 1752. The wheat spikes symbolize agriculture. The blue wavy stripes recall the several watercourses found in the municipality, first of them brook Tablada and river Pisuerga, but also the other brooks, ponds and fountains.
Ivan Sache, 7 February 2011