Last modified: 2015-01-10 by ivan sache
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![[Flag]](../images/e/es-za-ac.gif)
Flag of Arcenillas - Image by "Nethunter" (Wikimedia Commons), 20 March 2011
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The municipality of Arcenillas (370 inhabitants in 2010; 1,208 h) is located in the Zamora Province, 10 km from Zamora.
Arcenillas is known to art historians as the cradle of the "Arcenillas
panels", a group of altarpiece panels made at the end of the 15th
century by the famous painter Fernando Gallego (c. 1440-1507). The
Arcenillas panels have been the subject of numerous studies, the most
recent one published by Silvia Maroto.
The Salamanca-based painter Gallego was commissioned by Bishop of
Zamora Juan of Meneses to decorate the Zamora Cathedral. Achieved
around 1790, the altarpiece remained in the cathedral until sold on 28
January 1712 by Bishop Joaquín Benito de Churriguera to the parish of
Arcenillas. The altarpiece was then kept in the church's presbytery,
until 1816-1817, when it was split into panels to permit the building
of a vault. The panels were kept in the church's attic, from which at
least 19 were stolen.
Accordingly, the number of panels forming the altarpiece is not known.
The panel picturing "The Presentation to the Temple" bears No. 35, the
highest known number, but more panels might have existed. Panel No.
36, not included in the Zamora altarpiece, was sold in 1750. When
rebuilt in 1832, the altarpiece lacked several panels; four more
panels were robbed in November 1993 from the Arcenillas church,
leaving only 11 panels there. Two panels robbed in 1821 were donated
to the Zamora Cathedral in 1925-1930 by the descendants of the
culprits. Recently, the panel picturing "The Adoration of the Magi",
kept in the Oviedo Fine Arts Museum, was firmly identified as panel
No. 34 (La Opinión de Zamora, 2 March 2008).
Ivan Sache, 20 March 2011
The flag and arms of Arcenillas are prescribed by a Decree adopted on
14 April 1999 by the Zamora Provincial Government, signed on 17 May 1999 by the
President of the Government, and published on 1 June
1999 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 103, p. 5,841 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular flag, with proportions 2:3, made of a green panel with a red cross throughout fimbriated white, its vertical arms at 1/5 of the hoist.
Coat of arms: Per fess, 1. Gules a church argent masoned sable, 2. Or a bunch of grapes vert. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown closed.
The Royal Academy of History rejected a first proposal of arms and proposed the arms eventually adopted by the Municipal Council; the proposed flag was approved "without difficulty" (Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 2001, 179, 1: 178).
Ivan Sache, 20 March 2011
