Last modified: 2014-12-29 by ivan sache
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![[Flag]](../images/e/es-p-bal.gif)
Flag of Baltanás - Image by "Valdavia" (Wikimedia Commons), 29 April 2011
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The municipality of Baltanás (1,342 inhabitants in 2010; 15,885 ha; municipal website) is located 30 km from Palencia. The former municipality of Valdecañas de Cerrato (75 inh.) was incorporated to Baltanás on 21 February 1974.
Baltanás might have been the site of the Vaccaei town of Eldana,
mentioned in Ptolemy's "Geography"; however, no archeological artefact
of significance has been found yet that could confirm the "Geography",
which is bristled with errors.
The first castle of Baltanás, today disappeared, was built during the
last third of the 9th century after the victorious campaigns of King
Alfonso III the Great; the village that emerged, protected by walls,
was resettled by Cantabrian and Basque colonists. Baltanás was soon
made the capital of an alfoz (group of villages).
Baltanás was mentioned for the first time in 1030 as Valle de
Atanasio, when King Sancho II the Great transferred the parish church
to the San Isidro de Dueñas monastery. In 1059, King Ferdinand II
confirmed the transfers made by his father Sancho to the Bishopric of
Palencia, restored in 1035. Under the Catholic Monarchs, Baltanás was
made the capital of the Merindad de Cerrato, superseding Palenzuela.
Ivan Sache, 29 April 2011
The flag and arms of Baltanás are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 13
May 1996 by the Palencia Provincial Government, signed on 20 May 1996
by the President of the Government, and published on 30 May 1996 in the
official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 103 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular, made of three horizontal stripes, purple, white and purple, the white stripe twice higher than the white ones. In the middle is placed the municipal coat of arms.
Coat of arms: Gules five castles or port and windows azure per saltire, the shield placed over a Cross of Saint James, supported by a lion proper and surmounted with a Royal Spanish crown.
During the town's festival, the flag o Baltanás is carried through the streets, escorted by maceros (mace bearers) (El Norte del Castilla, 2 September 2009). Escorting the flag officially transferred by the Mayor seems to be a privilege highly prized in Baltanás. The three maceros originate in the somatén, a civil - but armed - militia that once escorted the flag of the village and the white flag of the Revilla Virgin. Every villager is eligible as a macero, but there are only three positions offered once a year!
The arms of Baltanás appear in the 6th quarter of the arms of Palencia Province.
Ivan Sache, 29 April 2011
