Last modified: 2016-06-04 by ivan sache
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The municipality of Navas del Rey (2,640 inhabitants in 2014; 508 ha; municipal website) is located in the south-west of the Community of Madrid, 50 km of Madrid.
Navas del Rey is named for an Iberian word meaning "pasture"; "del Rey" (the King's) recalls that the local pastures belonged from time to time to the Royal domain. This was a hunting place, listed in Alfonso XI's Libro de la Montería; the ruins of an old hunting lodge can still be seen near the town's cemetery. Subsequently a den of rascals, the lodge was suppressed by Queen Isabel the Catholic, some of its stones being reused as tombstones.
In 1306, the pastures were granted to the Cistercian monastery of Valdeiglesias by Sancho, the son of Infante Manuel. At the time, the pastures were crowded with scattered huts known as the White House, the New House, the Upper Houses, the Lower Houses, and the Galley House. Depending on the town of San Martín, the huts eventually formed an organized settlement known as "The Houses" ("Las Casas"), at the origin of the name of the inhabitants of Navas del Rey, Caseros. The distance to the town and the veiled exert of justice against them prompted the inhabitants of the pastures to call for separation, which was officially required in 1770. They obtained their own priest in 1774, while an oratory with a baptismal font was erected in 1782. Civil separation from San Martín was rejected in 1785 since the village counted less than 200 inhabitants.
Navas del Rey was eventually granted the status of villa on 22 April 1819 by King Ferdinand VII, with the support of the Duke of the Infantado. The villagers were commissioned to build a Town Hall and a jail within two years. The territorial limits of Navas del Rey and San Martín were fixed on 29 April 1837.
Ivan Sache, 17 July 2015
The flag of Navas del Rey (photos, photo) is green and white. Details are unknown yet.
Ivan Sache, 17 July 2015