^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Ajofrín (Municipality, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain)

Flag of Ajofrín - Image by "Asqueladd", Wikimedia Commons, 8 September 2019

Presentation of Ajofrín
Symbols of Ajofrín

See also:

Presentation of Ajofrín

The municipality of Ajofrín (2,244 inhabitants in 2018; 3,510 ha; municipal website) is located 20 km south of Toledo and 15 km north-west of Orgaz.

Ajofrín is an Arab toponym meaning "the place settled by the Al-Yafar family". The last will of Munio Alfonso de Ajofrín states that his father, Adefonsus Munio, was granted the town of Ajofrín by Alfonso VI around 1139. Munio's brother, Pedro, married Inés García Barroso; their sun, Juan Alfonso de Ajofrín was killed during the battle of Aljubarrota, fought in 1382 against Portugal, and interred in the Santo Domingo el Antiguo monastery in Toledo. On 19 October 1384, Inés García Barroso donated the town to the Dean of the cathedral of Toledo; as a reward, the church erected a fountain in the village, dedicated to Toledo's patron saint, St. Ildefonso.

Ajofrín is the birth place of the musician Jacinto Guerrero (1895-1951), a prolific composer of zarzuelas and revues, still very popular in Spain and South America (Los Gavilanes, 1923; El Huésped del Sevillano, 1926; Baile de la Chacona; El Canastilla de Fresas, 1961).

Ivan Sache, 8 September 2019

Symbols of Ajofrín

The flag of Ajofrín is prescribed by an Order issued on 20 December 1994 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on 30 December 1994 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 59, p. 4,577 (text).
The flag is described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular, blue, without specified proportions, with the crowned coat of arms in the center.

The coat of arms of Ajofrín is prescribed by an Order issued on 20 December 1994 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on 30 December 1994 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 59, pp. 4,576-4,577 (text).
The coat of arms is described as follows:

Coat of arms: Spanish shield. Azure a cross flory voided argent. The shield surmounted by a Spanish Royal crown.

The coat of arms reproduces the arms of the Ajofrín lineage, as painted on a mudéjar exposed beam dated to the second half 14th century.
[Balbina Martínez Caviró. 1993. Sobre los bne Furon, señores de Ajofrín. Anales de la Historia del Arte 4, 441-453]

The coat of arms superseded the arms of "immemorial use", "Argent a crescent reverted azure cantonned by four towers or. A bordure azure eight saltires or. The shield surmounted by a crown open and superimposed to a double-headed eagle." Of unknown origin, these arms did not belong either to the Alfonso or the García Barroso lineages. They might have belonged to another feudal lineage from the town, placed on the eagle to highlight the dependency on Toledo. The coronet, if not representing Toledo as a capital, could recall the Marquis of Pinto, who had been owing some rights on the town since the middle of the 18th century.
[José Luis Ruz Márquez & Ventura Leblic García. Heraldica municipal de la Provincia de Toledo. 1983; Municipal website]

Ivan Sache, 8 September 2019