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Almendralejo (Municipality, Extremadura, Spain)

Flag of Almendralejo - Image by Ivan Sache, 14 March 2020

Presentation of Almendralejo
Flag of Almendralejo
- Selection process

See also:

Presentation of Almendralejo

The municipality of Almendralejo (33,474 inhabitants in 2019; 16,450 ha; municipal website) is located 70 km south-east of Badajoz and 30 km south of Mérida.

Almendralejo, located in a fetile plain, was already settled in the Prehistoric times, as evidenced by remains of early settlements, the dolmen of El Cabezo de San Marcos (disappeared), the tomb of Huerta Montero, the necropolis of Las Minitas (Bronze Age) and the settlements of Campo Viejo, La Vega del Harnina and Tiza (Iron Age). The Romans established several villas on the banks of streams Harnian, Charnecal and Husero; Los Villares and Villagordo are the most emblematic archeological sites from this period.

After the reconquest of Mérida, King Alfonso IX commissioned the Order of Saint James to re-settled the territory. A charter was granted to attract new colonists, who established farms that would subsequently grow to villages and towns.
Almendralejo was first mentioned in 1327 in a privilege granted in Mérida to the local settlements by Master Vasco Rodríguez. The town was originally established in a place planted with almond trees (almendros), therefore its early name of Almendral ("almond orchard") de Mérida. The samll size of the settlement prompted the "reduction" of the name to its diminutive form, Almendralejo ("small almond orchard"). Elevated the seat of a commandery of the Order in the middle of the 14th century, Almendralejo was granted the status of villa by Charles V in 1536. The town, however, remained under the jurisdcition of Mérida after a long lawsuit. In 1573, Alemndrakejo, together with Montemolín, Monesterio, Calzadilla and Medina de las Torres, was acquired by Seville, which kept it only for five years.
Almendralejo was eventually granted the full statute of villa in 1865, separating from Mérida. Ruined at the end of the 18th cnetury in the aftermath of the wars with Portugal, the town was revamped by Charles III, who ordered the sharing of plots among small farmers to grow grapevine and olive.
Almendralejo was granted the title of ciudad by Isabel II in 1851.

Theodosius' missorium aka Theodosius' disk / dish, discovered in 1847 by farmers weeding a plot near Almendralejo, was acquired by the Royal Academy of History. The silver disk, of 74 cm in diameter, is considered as the silver-work masterpiece of the late Ancient Word. Its datation and origin are disputed, as well as the identity of the characters represented on the disk, an Emperor seating on a throne surrounded by two Augusti of smaller size, the three haloed, and offering a parchment to a fourth, bending character.
Based on the writing surrounding the secen, "DN THEODOSIVS PERPET AVG OB DIEM FELICISSIMVM XV", Antonio Delgado, the Academician who first studied the disk, proposed that it was designed in 393 in Constantinople imperial workshops and features Theodosius the Great (Roman Emperor from 379 to 395) surrounded by his two sons, Arcadius (Eastern Roman Emperor from 395 to 408) and Honorius (Western Roman Emperor from 393 to 423), and Valentinian II (Roman Co-emperor, 375-392). José Ramón Mélida believes that the disk was designed in 398 in Salonica, where the court stayed at the time. B. Killerich interpreted the disk, which he dates to 387, as the symbol of the easterm power ruling the word. R. Delbrück claimed in 1929 that the three imperial characters are indeed Theodosius the Great, Valentinian II and Arcadius; this claim, has well as the datation to 393, has been backed up by several scholars since then.
In 1996, J. Meischner explained that the disk's style does not match Theodosius the Great's epoch, but that of Theodosius the Younger (Eastern Roman Emperor from 402 to 450) during the stay of the court in Ravenna ; the disk, designed in 421, would represent the Emperor surrounded by Valentinan III (Western Roman Emperor from 425 to 455) and Honorius, and Constantius III (Valentinan III's father, Western Roman Emperor for eight months in 421).
[Royal Academy of History]

Ivan Sache, 14 March 2020

Flag of Almendralejo

The flag (photo, photo, photo, photo, photo) and modified arms of Almendralejo were intially approved on 30 June 2006 by the Municipal Council as stated by an Announcement published on 15 July 2006 in the official gazette of Extremadura, No. 83, p. 12,779 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 2:3. Vertically divided into three equal stripes, white, green and white. Charged in the center with the municipal coat of arms in full colors. As for the shape, according to the Spanish tradition, oblong and rounded-off in base.
Coat of arms: Argent an almond tree vert fructed or. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.

The new symbols were approved by the Municipal Councillors from PSOE and PPE, while those from IU rejected them.

Ivan Sache, 14 March 2020

Selection process

Flag proposals - Images by Eugene Ipavec, 3 October 2010

In September 2004, the Municipal Council commissioned the Sociedad Española de Vexilogía to adjust the coat of arms to the norms of heraldry. The society also submitted three flag proposals, while an inhabitant of Trujillo submitte a fourth one. The citizens of Almendralejo were asked to elect the final design on the municipal website.
[El Periódico Extremadura, 28 June 2006]

The electronic voting process was supported by the Plan for Technological Literacy and Free Software, set up by the Council for Infrastructure and Technological Development of the Government of Extremadura, and managed by the Regional Association of the Peoples' Universities of Extremadura, jointly with the Municipality of Almendralejo. It was secured so that every citizen of Almendralejo could vote only once.
The winning design (336 votes) is proposal #1, described as "a rectangular flag in proportion 2:3, vertically divided in three white-green-white stripes of equal width, with in the middle of the flag the coloured municipal coat of arms.
Proposal #2 , described as a rectangular flag in proportion 2:3, gyronny white and green with the municipal coat of arms in the middle of the flag, received 185 votes.
Proposal #4, similar to proposal #2 but gyronny white, green and yellow, received 140 votes.
Proposal #3, described as a rectangular flag in proportion 2:3, white with the green tree with yellow fruits from the coat of arms, received only 40 votes.
[Hoy Digital, 31 May 2006]

Ivan Sache, 1 July 2006