Last modified: 2015-01-17 by ivan sache
Keywords: villaescusa | zamora |
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The municipality of Villaescusa (308 inhabitants in 2010; 4,312 ha; unofficial website) is located 50 km from Zamora.
Villaescusa had once a Protestant community, of which the chapel and the cemetery have remained. The tradition says that the Mayor and several villagers converted to the Protestant religion at the end of the 19th century, when the Roman Catholic parish's priest refused to cancel the tithe after several years of low harvest due to bad weather.
Ivan Sache, 27 March 2011
The flag and arms of Villaescusa are prescribed by a Decree adopted on
30 September 1999 by the Municipal Council, signed on 20
October 1999 by the Mayor, and published on 3 November 1999 in the official gazette
of Castilla y León, No. 212, p. 10,521 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular flag, with proportions 2:3, made of a white cross throughout with arms at 1:3 of the flag's hoist and 2:3 of the flag's upper border, of 1:6 the hoist in width, cantonned red except the quarter at upper fly blue with a white twelve-pointed star.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Azure an elm argent ensigned with a twelve- pointed star argent, 2. Argent a Cross of Saint James gules. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown closed.
The elm recalls the legend of the two knights who fought under an elm and were stopped by the Virgin, who said: "A good reason to stop your fight". The "good reason", in Spanish, buena excusa, is the popular etymology of the village's name. The Elm Virgin (Virgen del Olmo) is venerated in a yearly pilgrimage.
Ivan Sache, 27 March 2011