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Villanueva del Pardillo (Municipality, Community of Madrid, Spain)

Last modified: 2019-08-28 by ivan sache
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[Flag]

Flag of Villanueva del Pardillo - Image by Ivan Sache, 5 August 2015


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Presentation of Villanueva del Pardillo

The municipality of Villanueva del Pardillo (16,730 inhabitants; 2,535 ha; municipal website) is located in the west of the Community of Madrid, 30 km of Madrid. The municipality experienced a demographic boom at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, the population increasing from 973 inhabitants in 1981 to 6,431 in 2001 and 16,091 in 2011.

Villanueva del Pardillo is mentioned in Alfonso XI's Libro de la Monterí­a. The town was for long a hamlet of Galapagar, known as El Pardillo. Villanueva del Parrdillo was granted its current name, together with the status of villa, on 4 November 1702 by Philip V.
Located on the frontline during the Civil War, the town was totally destroyed, a single house excepted, at the end of the battle of Brunete.
The remains of the Roman villa of Los Palacios (1st-4th century) were excavated in 2013. A grape processing workshop (torcularium) was identified, the first of that kind found in the Community of Madrid.

Ivan Sache, 5 August 2015


Symbols of Villanueva del Pardillo

The flag (photos, photo, photo, photo, photo) and arms of Villanueva del Pardillo are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 19 June 1997 by the Government of the Community of Madrid and published on 15 October 1997 in the official gazette of the Community of Madrid, No. 245, p. 11 (text) and on 7 November 1997 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 267, p. 32,672 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: In proportions 2:3. Yellow panel. In the center is placed the crowned municipal coat of arms.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1a. Azure a garb of three wheat spikes or, 1b. Argent a bunch of grapes proper, 2. Per saltire vert a bend gules fimbriated or and or the writing "Ave María Gratia Plena". The shield surmounted by a Royal Spanish crown.

The symbols were inaugurated on 4 November 1997.
The dexter part of the coat of arms represents agriculture and wine-growing.
The sinister part of the coat of arms features the arms of the Mendoza, Marquis of Santillana, Dukes of the Infantado, Marquis of Mondéjar and Cenete, and Counts of Tendilla.
[Municipal website]

Diego Hurtado de Mendoza y Figueroa (1415/1417-1479), the elder son of Íñigo López de Mendoza, First Marquis of Santillana, was made Duke of the Infantado (full title, "Duque de las Cinco Villas del Estado del Infantado") in 1475; subsequently, the Dukes of the Infantado were made first-rank Grandees of Spain, and were therefore allowed to wear their hat in the presence of the king. Íñigo de Arteaga y Martín (b. 1941) is the 19th Duke of the Infantado.
"Vert a bend gules fimbriated or" are the oldest known arms of Mendoza; subsequently modified several times, the arms always included a red bend on a green field. The arms quartered per saltire were introduced by the first Marquis of Santillana and appear on a seal dated 1440; the marquis quartered his father's arms (Mendoza) with his mother's arms (de la Vega). His descendants were known as Mendoza de Guadalajara or Mendoza de l'Ave María. In the representations of these arms, the first quarter is inscribed with "AVE MARÍA" while the third quarter is inscribed with "PLENA GRATIA" (or, at least "GRATIA").
[José Luis García de Paz (UAM), Los poderosos Mendoza]

The Royal Academy of History rejected a previous proposal of coat of arms, "totally unacceptable". The first quarter, not explained in the supporting memoir, spreads an error very common in the 19th century, assuming that the "colour of Castile" was purple. From the establishment of the arms of Castile at the time of Alfonso VIII, the castle or has been consistently placed on a field gules. Moreover, the arms of Castile should not be included in municipal arms without a solid justification. The second quarter features the arms of the town of Madrid, the bordure excepted, with the erroneous substitution of argent by or. Here again, the use of these arms is totally inappropriate since there is no historical connection between Villanueva and Madrid. The design of the third and last quarter is not compliant with the good heraldic style, being of the style of the heraldic designs of the 19th century. It is not acceptable to represent a bunch of red grapes proper on a field gules , because of the proximity of the shades.
The Academy did not object validating the flag, provided the coat of arms is corrected.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 1997, 194: 1, 193-194]

Ivan Sache, 5 August 2015