Last modified: 2019-01-13 by ivan sache
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Flag of Aldeanueva de la Serrezuela - Image by Ivan Sache, 9 February 2015
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The municipality of Aldeanueva de la Serrezuela (56 inhabitants in 2009, 2,039 ha; municipal website) is located in the northeast of the Province of Segovia, on the border with the Province of Burgos, 90 km from Segovia.
Aldeanueva de la Serrezuela belonged at the end of the 12th century to
the Community of the Town and Land of Aza, the first community
established in the 10th century to re-settle and defend the County of
Castile reconquerred from the Moors. A new (nueva) settlement
(aldea) was founded in the highest part of the community, in the
Sierra de la Serrezuela.
Aldeanueva was granted in the 14th century to Pedro González de
Mendoza, lord of Hita and Buitrago; a wealthy cattle owner, Mendoza
was an influent member of the court, being Majordomo of Prince John,
the son of King Henry II. In 1375, Queen Juana Manuel, Henry II's wife
and lord of Sepúlveda, swapped with Pedro González de Mendoza the villages of Somosierra and Robregordo for Aldeanueva. The village
would remain under the jurisdiction of Sepúlveda until the suppression of the feudal system, keeping, however, its community rights on
mountains, pastures and water. In 1512, Queen Joanna the Mad, lord of
Sepúlveda, signed a charter ordering to stop clearings in Aldeanueva
de la Serrezuela for the establishment of arable lands and the
plantation of vineyards.
When Spain was divided in provinces (1833), 11 out of the 13 villages
forming the Community of Aza were incorporated to the Province of Burgos,
while Aldeanueva de la Serrezuela and Aldehorno were incorporated to
the Province of Segovia. The definition of the limits of the municipal
territory was cumbersome, the process being slowed down by numerous
disputes with the neighbouring villages, especially Aldehorno.
Aldeanueva de la Serrezuela is the birth place of Victoriano Hernando
y Palacios (1783-1866). Emigrated to Madrid, Hernando found in 1828
thz Casa Editorial Hernando, a prestigious publishing company dedicated
to education, which would be active until 1985. Hernando also
published the Dictionary of the Royal Academy and most works of Benito
Pérez Galdós (1843-1920), a prolific novelist, playwright and
journalist of the Realist school (Episodios nacionales, 46 volumes;
Novelas españolas contemporáneas).
Hernando acted as a conciliator during the establishment of the
municipal limits and funded the building of a new town hall including
a school. As a reward, the Municipal Council required the change of
the village name for Serrezuela de Hernando; based on a negative
recommendation by the Royal Geographic Society, the Ministry rejected
the application.
The Hernando Museum (presentation) was inaugurated in Aldeanueva de la Serrezuela on
18 August 2012.
Ivan Sache, 9 February 2015
The flag and arms of Aldeanueva de la Serrezuela are prescribed by a
Decree adopted on 17 April 2009 by the Municipal Council, signed on 13
July 2009 by the Mayor, and published on 3 August 2009 in the official
gazette of Castilla y León, No. 146, p. 24,234 (text).
The symbols, which were designed by Vicente Tocino Letrado and Tomás Rodríguez Peñas, are described
as follows:
Flag: Rectangular flag in proportions 2:3, made of three equal vertical flags, violet at hoist, white in the middle with the municipal coat of arms, and red at fly.
Coat of arms: Per fess, 1. Argent a mount vert surmounted by a Cross of CaravCaravacaaca sable, 2. Gules dexter in chief a fountain and sinister an inn, in base an oak terraced all proper, an escutcheon oval purpure a castle or masoned sable port and windows azure. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.
The Cross of Caravaca is a relic of the True Cross kept in a proper reliquary kept in the Basilica of Caravaca de la Cruz (Murcia).
Ivan Sache, 19 October 2010