Last modified: 2013-09-21 by ivan sache
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![[Flag]](../images/e/es-le-so.gif)
Flag of Santa Colomba de Somoza - Image by Antonio Gutiérrez (VexiLeón website), 12 March 2011
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The municipality of Santa Colomba de Somoza (463 inhabitants in 2010; 17,910 ha; municipal website) is located in the southwest of León Province, 60 km of León. The municipality is made of the villages of Andiñuela de Somoza, Argañoso, La Maluenga, Murias de Pedredo, Pedredo, Rabanal del Camino, Rabanal Viejo, San Martín de Agostedo, Santa Colomba de Somoza (capital), Santa Marina de Somoza, Tabladillo, Turienzo de los Caballeros, Valdemanzanas, Viforcos and Villar de Ciervos.
Santa Colomba de Somoza is located in a region once famous for its
gold mines, already exploited by the Romans. The tradition says that
Santa Colomba was mentioned for the first time in 937, but there is
good evidence that the village named Santa Colomba on that old
document should be found elsewhere; a document dated 1027 listing
Santa Colomba among the possessions of the Bishop of Astorga is
considered as apocryphal but the identification of the places it lists
is quite sure.
Located on the main road linking Galicia to central Spain, and, accordingly, on the Way of St. James, the villages forming the today's municipality were famous in the 16th-19th centuries for their muleteers, whose activity declined after the opening of the Astorga
railway station in 1866.
Ivan Sache, 12 March 2011
The flag and arms of Santa Colomba de Somoza are prescribed by a
Decree adopted on 10 October 2000 by the Municipal Council, signed on 11 October 2000 by the Mayor, and published on 23 October 2000 in the
official gazette of Castile and León, No. 205, p. 12,825 (text).
The symbols are described as follows:
Flag: Rectangular flag, with proportions 2:3, made of five horizontal stripes with proportions 1:6, 1:6, 1:3, 1:6 and 1:6, the outer stripes black, the intermediate stripes white and the central stripe red with a white scallop.
Coat of arms: Argent, a pair of local villagers (maragatos) proper ensigned dexter with a scallop gules and sinister with a wheel of the same, a bordure gules with 19 Greek crosses argent. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown closed.
The 19 crosses must stand for the 19 villages forming the municipality, whose location on the Way of St. James is recalled by the scallop.
Ivan Sache, 12 March 2011