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Pozuelo de Alarcón (Municipality, Community of Madrid, Spain)

Flag of Pozuelo de Alarcón - Image by Ivan Sache, 20 July 2015

Presentation of Pozuelo de Alarcón
Symbols of Pozuelo de Alarcón
Everest School

See also:

Presentation of Pozuelo de Alarcón

The municipality of Pozuelo de Alarcón (84,360 inhabitants in 2014; 4,320 ha; municipal website) is located 15 km west of Madrid. The municipality experienced a demographic boom in the second half of the 20th century, its population increasing from 4,250 inhabitants in 1950 to 68,214 in 2001.

Pozuelo de Alarcón, named for wells (pozos), was first mentioned in 1208, when King Alfonso VIII established the limits between the towns of Segovia, Toledo, Madrid and Alamín: et Pozolos remanet de parte de Madrid (and Pozolos shall remain part of Madrid). The town was originally made of the villages of Pozuelo and Húmera, and of another two hamlets, San Juan de Somosaguas and San Pedro de Meaque, which disappeared during the conflict between Peter I the Cruel and Henry II.

Pozuelo was acquired in 1632 by Gabriel Ocaña de Alarcón, who obtained that the name of the town was changed from Pozuelo de Aravaca to Pozuelo de Alarcón. The town gained significance in the 18th century; Juan Díaz de Quijano established a tannery at the northern entrance of the village. The minister Pedro Rodríguez de Campomanes stayed in Pozuelo in summertime, funding the building of four bridges on the Pozuelo brook. In the 19th century, the Madrid bourgeoisie enjoyed in summer the elm and pine woods, and, most of all, water with renown healing properties.
General Francisco Javier Castaños (1758-1852), the winner of the battle of Bailén (19 July 1808), retired there. Colonies formed of family-oriented vacations houses, locally known as "hotels", were established. The set up of the railway line by the Compañía de Caminos de Hierro del Norte de España (1861) facilitated access to Pozuelo, which was described at the time as the most select and pleasant summering place for the Court. The mountain of Pozuelo was acquired by the Marquis of Remisa, an influent banker. The Escorzonera fountain remained a municipal property until sold in 1924, with the neighbouring land, to the Count of Heredia-Spinola. The San José colony was established in 1914 for the middle-class merchants and employees.
The development of Pozuelo was stopped by the Civil War. The "Battle of the Fog" claimed 200 lives.

Ivan Sache, 20 July 2015

Symbols of Pozuelo de Alarcón

The flag of Pozuelo de Alarcón (photos, photo, photo, photo, photo) is prescribed by a Decree adopted on 19 September 1991 by the Government of the Community of Madrid and published on 28 October 1991 in the official gazette of the Community of Madrid, No. 256, p.11 (text) and on 19 November 1991 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 277, p. 37,480 (text).
The flag is described as follows:

Flag: In proportions 2:3. Purple, charged in the center with the municipal coat of arms in full colours.

The coat of arms of Pozuelo de Alarcón is prescribed by Decree No. 3,384, adopted on 5 December 1974 by the Spanish Government and published on 25 December 1975 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 309, p. 26,719 (text).
The coat of arms is described as follows:

Coat of arms: Per pale, 1. Azure a mount or ensigned with a castle of the same masoned sable port and windows gules, 2. Gules a cross flory voided or a bordure gules charged with eight saltires or. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.

The description of the symbols is repeated in the Special Regulation of Protocol of the town (text), Articles 9-13 (coat of arms) and 14-20 (flag). Article 16 and the attached drawing prescribes the width of the coat of arms to be 2/5 of the flag's width.

The Royal Academy of History required the simplification of the proposed arms. The arms of the Cevallos, which were lords of Pozuelo earlier than the Alarcón, had to be removed. The second quarter represents the arms of the Alarcón family.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 1976, 173, 1: 169]

Ivan Sache, 20 July 2015

Everest School

Flag of Everest School - Image by Ivan Sache, 27 July 2018

Everest School (website) is a bilingual, private, catholic elementary, junior and high school, established in 1983 in Monteclaro urbanization.
Everest School, originally Colegio Everest Monteclaro, is part of the School's Network "Regnum Christi", which groups 254 schools and 13 universities worldwide. In Spain, the network is composed of seven colleges located in Madrid (Everest School, Highlands School El Encinar, Highlands School Los Fresnos), Barcelona (Col.legi Real Monester de Santa Isabel, Highlands School), Seville (Highlands School), and Valencia (Cumbres School), and of one university (Universidad Francisco de Vitoria).
"Regnum Christi" (Latin: Kingdom of Christ) is an international Catholic movement established in 1959 by the Legion of Christ, a controversial religious order established in 1941 in Mexico by the nefarious Marcial Maciel Degollado (1920-2008). The order adopted new Constitutions in 2014 under the pressure of the Holy See; a Special Assistant appointed by the Pope is still member of the board of the order.
[ Reuters, 7 October 2017; La Vie, 2010-2014]

The flag of Everst School (photo, photo) is white with the school's emblem.
The Latin motto, "Semper Altius" (Always Higher) expresses "our commitment to reach, every day, the maximum possible integral development: physical, intellectual, moral and religious excellence for each of our students."

Esteban Rivera & Ivan Sache, 27 July 2018