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Guadramiro (Municipality, Castilla y León, Spain)

Flag of Guadramiro - Image by "Asqualadd" (Wikimedia Commons), 2 February 2014,

Presentation of Guadramiro
Symbols of Guadramiro

See also:

Presentation of Guadramiro

The municipality of Guadramiro (170 inhabitants in 2009; 3,148 ha; unofficial website) is located in the northwest of Salamanca Province, 5 km from Vitigudino and 75 km from Salamanca. The odd shape of the southern part of the municipal territory derives from the transfer of Gema to Yecla de Yeltes in the middle of the 19th century. The thin stripe of land kept by Guadramiro provides access to river Huebra.

Guadramiro was already settled at the Roman time, as evidenced by several funerary stones re-used to build houses and the parish church. In the 19th century, most scholars believed that Guadramiro was the site of the Roman towns of Mirobriga or Bletisa.
Guadramiro got its name during the Christian reconquest, from the Arab word wad, "a river", here river Huebra, and, less clearly, from Ramiro, referring to King of León Ramiro II (931-951), who reconquerred Ledesma, Salamanca, Guadramiro and Moronta from the Moors. The village was mentioned for the first time in 1167, under its today's name, when it was transferred by Ferdinand II to the Bishop of Zamora. The village's name was written Guadramiro in 1265 and Guadaramiro in the 17th century.
Guadramiro belonged to the Council of Ledesma, chartered in 1100 by Alfonso VI, the charter being amended in 1161 by Ferdinand II. The village was represented at the León Cortes, gathered in 1188 and considered as the earliest Parliament in the world. In 1534, Guadramiro was the most populous village of the "roda" (administrative division of the County of Ledesma) of Mieza, with 136 inhabitants; this was still the case in 1591 (197 inh.). Guadramiro was then ran by the Maldonado-Ormaza family, also owners of Gema and Picones. The lords were mostly known as Marquis of Castellanos, referring to Castellanos de la Cañada (Ávila).

Guadramiro is the birth place of Father Antonio de Guadramiro, who celebrated in 1579 the first mass ever on Tierra del Fuego (Argentina), and of the painter Vidal González Arenal (b. 1859), noted in the Salamanca Province.

Ivan Sache, 2 February 2014

Symbols of Guadramiro

The flag and arms of Guadramiro, designed by Luis Hernández Olivera, are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 17 September 2007 by the Municipal Council, signed on 19 September 2007 by the Mayor, and published on 3 October 2007 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 193, p. 18,797 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Quadrangular flag with proportions 1:1, made of a blue panel with a red stripe parallel to the hoist at 1/4th of the flag side, claveted of six red and five blue pieces. On the blue stripe, centered, is placed the municipal coat of arms.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Azure a tower argent with five pinnacles, masoned and port and windows sable, 2. Gules five fleurs-de-lis or per saltire. The shield surmounted with a Spanish Royal crown.

The coat of arms (unofficial website; image) was designed by Luis María Hernandez Olivera.
The tower is a visual symbol, representative of Guadramiro. The fortified tower of Guadramiro (photo) was built by the Catholic Monarchs in Spanish-Flemish style. The tower had two functions, first, as the bell tower of the nearby El Salvador church, and, second, as a fortress protecting the nearby manor of the lords of Guadramiro.
The fleurs-de-lis represent the lords of Guadramiro, Marquis of Castellanos.

Ivan Sache, 2 February 2014