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Fresno de la Ribera (Municipality, Castilla y León, Spain)

Last modified: 2016-04-09 by ivan sache
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Presentation of Fresno de la Ribera

The municipality of Fresno de la Ribera (397 inhabitants in 2009; 1,313 h) is located in the southwest of the Province of Zamora, 15 km from Zamora.
Fresno de la Ribera, locally known as Fresno de los Ajos, was mentioned for the first time in 1103, as Frexno, later changed to Fraxino de Riparia, Freisno and Freixino. The village was transferred on 14 August 1139 by King Alfonso VII to Bernardo, Bishop of Zamora, who granted a charter to the village on 1 January 1146; the Fresno de la Ribera charter is considered as the prototype of bishop's charters. On 6 April 1574, Pope Gregory XIII signed a Bull allowing King Philip II to sell the towns and villages owned by the Bishop and the Chapter of the Zamora Cathedral; the villager Fernando Frias Ceballos, magistrate of Medina del Campo and treasurer of the Spanish troops in Flanders purchased in 1575 Fresno de la Ribera.

Ivan Sache, 16 January 2011


Symbols of Fresno de la Ribera

The flag and arms of Fresno de la Ribera are prescribed by a Decree adopted on 15 April 2002 by the Municipal Council, signed on 18 December 2002 by the Mayor, and published on 20 February 2003 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 35, p. 2,746 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Made of the three colors of the municipal coat of arms. Vert, the color of its ash trees [fresnos], symbolizes hope, friendship and courtesy expressed by the villagers. Argent symbolizes the purity of the landscape. Gules symbolizes charity, honor and valiance. In the middle is placed the coat of arms; the flag has quadrangular proportions.
Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Or an ash tree vert, 2. Gules a town argent, grafted in base waves azure and argent [Crown not mentioned].

The Royal Academy of History recommended to substitute the representation of the town on the coat of arms, which is confusing, difficult to reproduce and illegible on small-sized reproduction, by a simpler charge, for instance a wall, a tower or a castle. The number of waves in the base of the shield is excessive: six waves, three of each colour, are recommended. The alleged symbolism of the colours should definitively be suppressed from the description.
Since the flag proposal includes the rejected coat of arms, a new joint proposal is expected.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 2005, 202, 2: 310]

Ivan Sache, 5 March 2015

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