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Boadilla de Rioseco (Municipality, Castilla y León, Spain)

Flag of Boadilla de Rioseco - Image by "Rodelar" (Wikimedia Commons), 11 January 2014

Presentation of Boadilla de Rioseco
Symbols of Boadilla de Rioseco

See also:

Presentation of Boadilla de Rioseco

The municipality of Boadilla de Rioseco (129 inhabitants in 2012 - 1,375 in 1900; 5,127 ha; municipal website) is located in the west of Palencia Province, 50 km from Palencia.

Boadilla de Rioseco was known in the Middle Ages as Bovatella in Rido seco, referring to a low place (hoyada) or to a cattle herd (boyada); some historians claim that a bovata was indeed the area that a bovine could plow within a year (c. 7 ha).
Boadilla de Rioseco was mentioned as early as in 920, but the exact date of the foundation of the village is unknown. The village was then the place of the Royal Monastery of St. Mary of Benavides, founded in 1169 by Countess Estefania and ruled since 1179 by Cistercian monks. The monastery became very important in 1254 when sponsored by Rodrigo González Girón, the Majordomo of King Ferdinand III.

Ivan Sache, 11 January 2014

Symbols of Boadilla de Rioseco

The flag and arms of Boadilla de Rioseco are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 27 April 2012 by the Municipal Council, signed the same day by the Mayor, and published on 18 May 2012 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 94, p. 33,136 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular flag, in proportions 2:3, tierced per diagonal in base with the angle at hoist [per bend], the triangle at fly yellow, the central bend blue, and the triangle at hoist yellow. The flag charged in the middle with the municipal coat of arms in its full colours.
Coat of arms: [Per fess,] 1. Or a bovine passant sable, 2. Azure a stone bridge argent masoned sable over fesses wavy azure and argent. The shield surmounted by a Royal Spanish crown.

The historical memoir supporting the proposed symbols, dated 15 January 2012, was written by Rubén Ojeda de la Roza.
The flag uses the colours of the coat of arms, as recommended by the Spanish Society of Vexillology.
The bovine (buey) on the first quarter of the shield alludes to a possible origin of the village's name. Or represents the grain fields, the main source of income for the municipality all along its history. The second quarter represents river Sequillo, watering the municipal territory and the village's namesake. The bridge represents the old stone bridge last revamped in 1779.

Ivan Sache, 11 January 2014