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Fuensalida (Municipality, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain)

Last modified: 2020-03-31 by ivan sache
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Flag of Fuensalida - Image by Ivan Sache, 9 September 2019


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Presentation of Fuensalida

The municipality of Fuensalida (11,038 inhabitants in 2018, therefore the 7th most populated municipality in the province; 6,837 ha; municipal website) is located 30 km north-west of Toledo and 15 km north-east of Torrijos.

Fuensalida originates in a rural hamlet settled by Mozarabs. In 1404, Costanza, the daughter of Fernán García, sold Fuensalida to Pedro de Ayala (d. 1450). In 1435, Pedro and his wife, Elvira de Castañeda, established the domain of Fuensalida for their son, Pedro López de Ayala (d. after 1484). This was confirmed on 10 April 1445 by king John II, who granted in 1470 the status of villa to the town and created the County of Fuensalida for Pedro López de Ayala.
Pedro López de Ayala II (1471-1537), 3rd Count of Fuensalida, appointed Governoir Genenal of Galicia by Charles V in 1506, was among the first nobles to revolt against the king in the War of the Commoners.
Pedro López de Ayala IV (1537-1599), 4th Count of Fuensalida, served Philip II as Ambassador in England and Austria; he was appointed Knight of the Order of Saint James, Commanbder Mayor of Castile, the King's Majordomo and member of the State and War Councils.

Fuensalida is the birth place of two Franciscan friars involved in the evangelization of South America.
Luis de Fuensalida was among the 12 missionaries who landed on 13 May 1524 in San Juan de Ulua and are considered as the fathers of the Mexican church. Luis de Fuensalida and Francisco Jiménez are recorded in the chronicles as the first two friars who learned Nahuatl.
Bartolomé de Fuensalida and Juan de Orbita destroyed a pagan idol venerated in a temple located on the Nohpeten island; the idol was the statue of a horse recalling a genuine horse offerred in 1525 by Hernán Cortes to the local king Canek. An eloquent sermon by Bartolomé de Fuensalida eventually prevented th infuriated natives to lynch the friars.

Ivan Sache, 9 September 2019


Symbols of Fuensalida

The flag (photo, photo, photo, photo, photo) and arms of Fuensalida are prescribed by an Order issued on 4 April 1991 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on 10 April 1991 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 28, p. 1,158 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular, in usual proportions, vertically divided in the middle, at hoist vert with a white fountain, at fly, white.
Coat of arms: Spanish shield. Per pale, 1. Vert a fountain argent, 2. Argent two wolves sable a bordure gules charged with saltires or. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.

The Royal Academy approved the proposed symbols without "opposing any objection". The fountain (fuente) makes the arms canting, while the second quarter features the canting arms (lobos, "wolves") of the López de Ayala lineage.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 188:2, 380. 1991]

On 12 November 1981, the municipal administration of Fuensalida acknowledged the use on festival programs and other similar documents on a shield featuring two wolves passant and a bordure, surmoutned by a Count's coronet and placed on a cartouche. The design was deemed "not proper to the municipality".
[José Luis Ruz Márquez & Ventura Leblic García. Heraldica municipal de la Provincia de Toledo. 1983]

Ivan Sache, 9 September 2019