Last modified: 2015-01-03 by ivan sache
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Flag of Cespedosa de Tormes - Image by Ivan Sache, 15 January 2014
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The municipality of Cespedosa de Tormes (573 inhabitants in 2012; 4,629 ha; municipal website) is located in the southeast of the Salamanca Province, 30 km form Béjar and 60 km from Salamanca.
Cespedosa de Tormes was part of the "sexmo" of Serrezuela, the least
populous administrative division of the alfoz (group of villages) of
Ávila. In 1209, the village was located on the border between the Bishoprics of Ávila, Plasencia and Salamanca.
Cespedosa de Tormes was granted, together with Puente del Congosto, by King Henry III to Gil
González Dávila in 1393. The new lord built the fortress of Cespedosa
in the early 14th century, of which only a high, square tower has been
preserved. Dávila's possessions were fiercely disputed by his two
sons, Juan Dávila and Luis de Guzmán. After the two rivals had each
appointed a private army, the Catholic Monarchs called them at the
Court to settle the dispute. The archives of the Dukes of Alba keep a
document dated 1456, which proposed to swap domains between Fernando
Álvarez de Toledo, Count of Alba, on the one hand, and Aldonza de
Guzmán, Gil González Dávila's widow, and her sons, respectively. The
Count of Alba would have exchanged the towns of Galaz, Jumella and
Corralnuevo for the towns of Cespedosa and Puente del Congosto.
The proposal failed because the Ávila Council forbid Guzmán to sell
towns that nominally belonged to the Crown. The sale was eventually
cancelled in 1491. The Royal Court allocated Cespedosa to Juan Dávila
and Puente del Congosto to Luis de Guzmán; who eventually sold his
last possessions in Cespedosa to his brother. Juan Dávila's elder son,
Francisco González Dávila, was made in 1494 lord of Cespedosa. The
subsequent lords of Cespedosa belonged to the Bracamonte, Medrano and
Sales Portocarrero lineages.
Cespedosa was transferred in 1833 to the Salamanca Province.
Ivan Sache, 15 January 2014
The flag of Cespedosa de Tormes (municipal website) is prescribed by a Decree adopted on
27 June 2013 by the Municipal Council, signed on 30 July 2013 by the
Mayor, and published on 16 August 2013 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 157, p. 56,011 (text).
The flag, which was validated by the Chronicler of Arms of Castilla y León, is
described as follows:
Flag: Castilian flag, in proportions 1:1. Two horizontal stripes, blue (azure) and green (vert). In the middle of the flag is placed the municipal coat of arms in full colours.
The coat of arms of Cespedosa de Tormes (municipal website) is prescribed by a Decree
adopted on 29 April 2013 by the Municipal Council, signed on 6 May
2013 by the Mayor, and published on 28 May 2013 in the official
gazette of Castilla y León, No. 100, p. 35,155 (text).
The coat of arms, which was validated by the Chronicler of Arms of Castilla y León, is
described as follows:
Coat of arms: Per fess, 1a. Or six bezants azure per pale, 2, 2 and 2, 1b. Gules a tower or with five crenels masoned sable port and windows azure, 2. Vert a holly oak argent surrounded by a jug and dancer's staffs [palos] or in base a fess wavy argent and azure. The shield surmounted by a Royal Spanish crown.
Based on the history of the village and on the coat of arms shown on the buildings, the bezants are the main ornaments of the church and of the castle. The tower is the symbol of the villa status; its heraldic representation was made as closest as possible to the real tower of Cespedosa. The holly oak, here in its simplified heraldic representation, is the most common tree on the municipal territory. The pottery tradition and the ancestral dance identifies the village; the waves represent river Tormes.
Ivan Sache, 15 January 2014