Last modified: 2016-06-04 by ivan sache
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![[Flag]](../images/e/es-m-sma.gif)
Flag of Santa María de la Alameda - Image by Ivan Sache, 25 July 2015
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The municipality of Santa María de la Alameda (1,212 inhabitants in 2014; 7,440 ha; municipal website) is located in the north-west of the Community of Madrid, on the border with Castilla y León (Provinces of León and Segovia) 70 km of Madrid.
La Dehesa de la Cepeda, part of Santa María de la Alameda, forms the sole exclave of the Community of Madrid, resulting an "inaccessible island" served only by a forest road. The territory was transferred in 1833 from the Province of Segovia to the Province of Madrid, together with Santa María de la Alameda, for a reason yet to be documented. The tradition says that the land once belonged to Sáinz de Baranda, a former Mayor of Madrid; it was subsequently acquired by landlords who preferred to maintain the connection with Madrid.
[El Pais, 24 February 2011]
Santa María de la Alameda belonged to the Community of the Town and Land of Segovia. In the beginning of the 16th century, 61 villagers were sentenced for their involvement in the War of the Comuneros. The village experienced a short Gilded Age during the building of the monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (1563-1584), supplying marble from the quarries located near the La Aceña bridge and timberwood from La Cepeda. A small dam was also built to supply the building site with water.
Ivan Sache, 25 July 2015
The flag of Santa María de la Alameda (photos) is prescribed by a Decree adopted on 27 July 1989 by the Government of the Community of Madrid and published on 7 September 1989 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 214, p. 28,491 (text).
The flag is described as follows:
Flag: In proportions 2:3, a white panel with the municipal coat of arms in the center.
The coat of arms of Santa María de la Alameda is prescribed by a Decree adopted on 9 April 1987 by the Government of the Community of Madrid and published on 22 April 1987 in the official gazette of the Community of Madrid, No. 94, p. 2 (text) and on 22 May 1987 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 122, p. 15,033 (text).
The coat of arms is described as follows:
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Argent a poplar eradicated vert ensigned with a fleur-de-lis azure, 2. Gules a two-storeyed aqueduct argent masoned sable on ten rocks argent.. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.
The Royal Academy of History validated the proposed arms, which are described with the two quarters swapped. The poplar (álamo) recalls the local landscape and makes the arms canting. The fleur-de-lis is a symbol of Marian devotion. The second quarter is made of the arms of the Community of the Town and Land of Segovia, featuring the Roman aqueduct of Segovia.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 1987, 184:2, 382]
Ivan Sache, 25 July 2015