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Viso del Marqués (Municipality, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain)

Last modified: 2019-09-17 by ivan sache
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[Flag]

Flag of Viso del Marqués - Image by "Erlenmeyer", Wikimedia Commons, 10 June 2019


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Presentation of Viso del Marqués

The municipality of Viso del Marqués (2,363 inhabitants in 2018; 53,320 ha) is located on the border with the Province of Córdoba (Andalusia), 70 km south-east of Ciudad Real and 40 km south-west of Valdepeñas.

Viso del Marqués is named for the Marquesses of Santa Cruz, a title created on 19 October 1569 by Philip II for Álvaro de Bazán, Admiral of the Navy. From 1564 to 1386, the Marquess erected in the town a Renaissance palace, designed by Italian artists. The admiral selected Viso to establish his headquarter as a strategic place located equidistant of Madrid and the ports under his command: Cádiz, Cartagena, and Lisbon.
Severely damaged during the French invasion, the palace was successively used as a grain store, a school and a jail. The Santa Cruz family eventually offered it to the Spanish Army to house the General Archives of the Navy, composed of 80,000 items (1784- Civil War). The palace is open to visit as the Archive Museum Álvaro de Bazán (official website), managed by the Fundación Museo Naval.

Álvaro de Bazán (1506-1588) is known in Spain as the Invincible Sailor. In his early years, he was in charge of the protection of the Spanish colonial fleet threatened by pirates and privateers in the Gulf of Cádiz (1544-1562). In 1563, he rescued Oran and Mers-el-Kébir, then Spanish possessions in North Africa; the next year, he reconquerred and fortified the Vélez de la Gomera rock, located on the Moroccan coast (and still owned by Spain).
Álvaro de Bazán significantly contributed to the lift of the siege of Malta by the Ottomans in 1565. Appointed Captain General of the Naples Galleys in 1568, he resumed struggle against Mediterranean pirates. As the main lieutenant of Don Juan of Austria, Captain General of the Sea, he took part to the decisive battle of Lepanto (1571).
Appointed Captain General of the Spanish galleys in 1576, he served Philip II's Atlantic ambitions that led to the occupation of Portugal (1580) and the assault of the Azores (1582-1583). As a reward, Álvaro de Bazán was erected Grandee of Spain in 1583 and appointed Captain General of the Oceanic Sea. In charge of the invasion of England, he planned the Invincible Armada but died before its implementation.
[Biografías y Vidas]

Ivan Sache, 10 June 2019


Symbols of Viso del Marqués

The flag of Viso del Marqués (photo, photo, photo, photo) is prescribed by an Order issued on 18 May 1992 by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha and published on 22 May 1992 in the official gazette of Castilla-La Mancha, No. 38, p. 2,123 (text).
The flag is described as follows:

Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 2:3 meters, composed of a panel formed of two right-angle trapezoids, the upper, blue, and the lower, golden. At hoist an equilateral white triangle, of 2 m in size, charged with the crowned municipal coat of arms.

[Flag]

Earlier proposal - Image by Ivan Sache, 10 June 2019

The Royal Academy of History validated an earlier, slightly different proposal. The blue stripe represents the Navy, while the golden yellow stripe represent the grain crops. The triangle is black, representing the small hill of Sierra Morena and the municipal coat of arms is placed on the colored stripes.
[Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 182:1,178. 1985]

The coat of arms of Viso del Marqués is prescribed by Royal Decree No. 1,947, signed on 16 July 1976 and published on 16 August 1976 in the Spanish official gazette, No. 196, p. 15,967 (text).
The coat of arms is described as follows:

Coat of arms: Chequy of 15 sable and argent. A bordure gules eight saltires or. Inescutcheon argent a cross flory gules. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.

The coat of arms is composed of the arms of the Bazán lineage, superimposed with the arms of the Order of Calatrava. Bazán was one of the 12 houses of ricos hombres (peers) established in 1135 by García Ramírez, King of Navarre. On 1456, Pedro de Bazán, 3rd lord of the Valley of Baztán, was erected Viscount of Palacios de la Valduerna.
[Heraldica Saraif, 7 February 2009]

Ivan Sache, 10 June 2019