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Flag of Medina del Campo - Image by Ivan Sache, 14 February 2014
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The municipality of Medina del Campo (21,594 inhabitants in 2012, therefore the 3rd most populous municipality in the province; 15,327 ha; tourism website) is located in the south-east of Valladolid Province, 50 km from Valladolid.
Medina del Campo, although already settled in the Age of Iron and in the Roman times, bears a name of Arab origin; "medina" means "the oldest part of a town". Medina del Campo was mentioned for the first time, as Metina, on a document dated 1170. The town was established during the re-settlement campaign organized by King Alfonso VI (1040-1109). The charter granted to the town was confirmed in 1258 by Alfonso X the Wise (1221-1284). The Cortes of Medina were gathered for the first time by Ferdinand IV (1285-1312).
Medina del Campo is nicknamed the Town of the Fairs. Ferdinand I of
Aragón (1380-1416), born in Medina del Campo, is considered as the
founder of the fairs (1404), probably on the model of those
established in Cuéllar in 1390. His wife, Eleanor of Aragó n
(1402-1445), lord of Medina, signed on 12 April 1421 the first
Ordinances regulating the fairs, which were granted in 1491 the title
of General Fairs of the Kingdom by the Catholic Monarchs. Beside the
Royal privilege, the fairs were favoured by the location of Medina del
Campo on the Toledo-Burgos road, at the crossing of roads to
Valladolid, Zamora, Salamanca, Segovia and Ávila. Two fairs of 50 days
each were organized every year in May and October, respectively.
Originally free markets, the fairs progressively attracted changers
and bankers from Antwerp, Lyon, Geneva, Florence and Lisbon. The local
tradition says that bills of exchanges were invented in Medina del
Campo in the 16th century, although earlier examples of such bills are
known in Italy. The fairs declined in the second half of the 16th
century following the economical crisis caused by the indebtedness of
the Crown. The break of trade with Flanders and the transfer of the
Court to Madrid caused in October 1594 the suppression of the fairs;
attempts of re-establishement failed during the reign of Philip V
(1700-1746).
The old downtown that developed in the 15th-16th
centuries was registered as an Historical and Artistic Monument in 1978.
Regional fairs were founded in Medina del Campo after the inauguration
of the railway line (1860); a weekly cattle market was established in
1870, as was a grain market in 1871. The San Antolín Main Fair was
created in 1873; its duration was extended in 1878 from 6 to 8 days,
as it is today.
The blaze that destroyed in 1492 some 260 buildings of Medina del
Campo prompted Isabel the Catholic to edict the "Fire Ordinances". The
queen dicted her last will on 26 November 1504 in the palace known
since then as "Palacio Real Testamentario" (Palace of the Royal Last
Will).
Medina del Campo took the party of the Comuneros revolted against
Charles I, refusing in 1520 to deliver the cannons required to attack
Segovia. As a retaliation, the Royal troops burned down more than 900
houses.
Ivan Sache, 14 February 2014
The flag of Medina del Campo (photo, photo, photo, photo) is purple with the municipal coat of arms in the middle.
The coat of arms of Medina del Campo is "Azure 13 roundels argent 3 +
3 + 3 + 3 + 1 a bordure argent inscribed 'NI EL REY OFICIO NI EL PAPA
BENEFICIO' in letters sable. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown
open".
The origin of the 13 roundels involves an old legend featuring Luis
Díez, captain of the militias of Medina del Campo. During the disaster
of Alarcos, a battle lost on 19 July 1195 by King Alfonso VIII to Al-
Mansur, Díez could not prevent his banner to be captured by the Moors.
For such a disgrace, he vowed not to come back to Medina until the
banner is retrieved; accordingly, he spent the rest of his life in a
small hut located out of the town. When about to die, he asked his son
Sancho to fulfil his promise. A few years later, Sancho commanded the
Medina troops, which, without any banner, defeated the Moors near
Ronda (Andalusia), together with the Ávila troops (in fact, Ronda was
re-conquered only in 1485!). In the abandoned Moorish camp, the
assaulters found two banners; Díez took the blue banner charged with
13 white roundels and brought it back triumphally to Medina del Campo.
To celebrate the fulfilment of the vow, Medina superseded its old
banner, made of yellow and blue bends, with the new one.
The motto on the bordure reads "Neither the King has office nor the
Pope has benefice", reflecting the civil and ecclesiastic autonomy
once enjoyed by the town (description).
The old chronicles present Medina del Campo before the Muslim invasion
as a kind of small republic, in which the power was exerted by the
people, the kings having no jurisdiction on any matter. This autonomy
was confirmed after the reconquest by the establishment of the
Lineages, which, however, transferred the power to a limited number of
families. Medina subsequently lost its full civil autonomy, at least
in 1170 when King Alfonso VIII granted the town to Queen Consort
Leonor of England. The town was then granted by John I to the Duchess
of Lancaster and by Ferdinand I to Eleanor of Aragón. The Lineages
were maintained, but they decreased even more the civil autonomy of
the town by asking in 1407 the King to appoint a "corregidor" to rule
the town and an "alcalde" to run the fortress. Those rulers defended
the interests of the king rather than those of the the town, so that
the civil autonomy of Medina del Campo had completely vanished in the
18th century.
The ecclesiastic autonomy of Medina del Campo resulted, more or less,
from the unresolved status of 16 "median" parishes disputed between
the Archdeaconry of Olmedo, which belonged to the Diocese of Ávila,
and the Archdeaconry of Medina, which belonged to the Diocese of
Salamanca, and, much later, to the Diocese of Valladolid. The disputed
parishes were incorporated into the Land of Medina, both their
ecclesiastic status remained indeterminate: they were ruled the one
year by Ávila and the next year by Salamanca. The bishops in charge
had little to decide about the ecclesiastic affairs in Medina del
Campo but to approve the local decisions, as confirmed in the Bull
signed by Pope Sixtus IV in 1480 to allow the building of the
collegiate church. Permanent struggle between the parish and the
collegiate church for precedence in processions and election of abbots
required in 1568 the intervention of King Philip V. As for the civil
autonomy, the ecclesiastic autonomy of Medina was then significantly
reduced; the inhabitants of the town attempted to prevent the direct
appointment of a vicar by the Bishop of Valladolid, to no avail. The
last local privileges were eventually suppressed by the Concordat
signed in 1851.
Ivan Sache, 14 February 2014
A Spanish national flag is hoisted over the highest tower of the collegiate church of Medina del Campo. The flag is changed every year for the inauguration of the San Antolín Festival by members of a local association (Lowering of the flag, 31 August 2012; Hoisting of the flag, 1 September 2012).
Ivan Sache, 14 February 2014
