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Valdeganga (Municipality, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain)

Last modified: 2019-10-19 by ivan sache
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Presentation of Valdeganga

The municipality of Valdeganga (1,928 inhabitants in 2014; 11,545 ha; municipal website) is located 25 km north-east of Albacete.

Valdeganga was established, according to the historian Juan Lozano, in 200 BC as the Roman town of Vallislonga, listed on the Antonine Itinerary as the 6th mansio (post) on the road heading to Saragosse. The nearby Torres bridge is of indisputable Roman origin.
Valdeganga was first mentioned in Bartolomé Alarcón's Codex, as Valdeganga de Jorquera, a village inhabited by 33 grain farmers. During the War of Independence, the villagers refused to destroy the bridge and the old Roman bridge, as requested by the French invaders to block the troops sent by the Mayor of Albacete.

Ivan Sache, 6 May 2019


Symbols of Valdeganga

The flag (photo) of Valdeganga is prescribed by an Order issued on 15 November 2011 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on 5 December 2011 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 237, p. 40,192 (text).
The flag is described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular panel in proportions 2:3, horizontally divided into three equal parts, the upper green, the central white and the lower black. Charged in the center with the coat of arms of the municipality.

The flag was inaugurated on 1 October 2010 during the village's festival.
[La Tribuna de Albacete, 1 October 2010]

The coat of arms of Valdeganga is prescribed by an Order issued on 15 November 2011 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on 5 December 2011 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 237, p. 40,194 (text).
The coat of arms is described as follows:

Coat of arms: Per fess, 1a. Vert a tower or, 1b. Or an eagle sable, 2. A bridge argent over waves ensigned by a sand-grouse. The shield surmounted by a Royal Spanish crown.

The first coat of arms of Valdeganga was prescribed by an Order issued on 14 October 1992 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on 21 October 1992 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 80, p. 4,514 (text). The coat of arms, originally approved on 23 June 1988 by the Municipal Council, is described as follows:

Coat of arms: Per fess, 1a. Vert a tower or, 1b. Or an eagle sable, 2. Argent a castle accosted by two lions all gules. The shield surmounted by a Royal Spanish crown.

The upper part of the shield is made of the arms of Jorquera, to which Valdeganga once belonged. The lower part of the shield is modelled on a wooden plaque kept in the Town Hall, which features a castle, two lions, and the name of the village in between. This design was interpreted as a simplified version of the arms of Castile; however, the proposed rationale for the inclusion of the arms of Castile in the arms of Valdeganga is quite contourned. This prompted the Municipal Council to amend the coat of arms and to find a more relevant design for the lower quarter. A heraldic representation of the Roman bridge and a sand-grouse (ganga), making the arms canting, were eventually selected.
[Historia de Albacete]

The Royal Academy of History validated the original arms, pointing out, however, that the castle-and-lions emblem had not been used in any municipal seal in the 19th-20th centuries.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 190:1, 158-159. 1993]

Ivan Sache, 6 May 2019