Last modified: 2020-10-26 by ivan sache
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Flag of Salvatierra de los Barros - Image by Ivan Sache, 16 March 2020
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The municipality of Salvatierra de los Barros (1,645 inhabitants in 2019; 7,500 ha) is located 70 km south-west of Badajoz and 30 km north of Jerez de los Caballeros.
Ivan Sache, 16 March 2020
The flag (photo,
photo) and arms of Salvatierra de los Barros, adopted on 7 November 1992 and 2 November 1994 by the Municipal Council and validated on 6 May 1994 and 7 March 1995 by the Assessing Council of Honors and Distinctions of the Government of Extremadura, are prescribed by an Order issued on 17 April 1995 by the Government of Extremadura and published on 20 April 1995 in the official gazette of Extremadura, No. 46, pp. 1,464-1,465 (text).
The symbols are described as followss:
Flag: Rectangular, in proportions 2:3, green with the municipal coat of arms in full colors in the center.
Coat of arms: Per fess, 1. Azure the castle of Salvatierra de Barros or, 2a. Gules a jar or, 2b. Argent an acorn vert. A bordure or five fig leaves vert. The shield surmounted by a Royal crown closed.
The castle of Salvatierra de Barros was erected in 1190 by Alfonso IX to control the access to Badajoz and prepare a future assault against the town. The fortress was most probably built on the remains of an Arab foritication, itself re-using part of a Roman fort. After a short-lived Muslim reconquest, the castle was seized in 1229 by Arias Pérez, Grand Master of the Order of Alcántara.
The fortress was disputed all along the 15th century, which caused its partial destruction by Gomes Suárez de Figueroa, 2nd Duke of Feria. Once owned by Hernán Gómez de Solís, the fortress was eventually transferred to the Duke of Feria and severely damaged in 1651 during the war against Portugal.
Erected on a hill 800 m above sea level, the castle is a complex building, composed of a first outer part, D-shaped and protected by six semi-cylindrical towers and a main part, made of two rectangular buildings protected by four towers with barbicans and defense walls.
Close to ruination, the castle was purchased in 1972 by Anthony Denney (1913-1990), an English magazine photographer, decorator and art collector, who restored it and used it as his main reisdence. After his death, the heirs from his first marriage challenged the last will that offered the castle to the photographer's second wife. The Supreme Court eventually validated the last will.
[Extremadura Medieval]
The jar symbolizes pottery, once the main source of income in Salvatierra de los Barros.
There is no historical record of pottery in the town before the 16th century, although this industry might date back to the medieval period. The answer to the Interrogatorio de la Real Audiencia, a survey performed at the end of the 18th century, indicates that at the time, out of population of 454 villagers, 29 vere potters, three of them being specialized in finest work, who produced a great diversity of pieces highly prized at the court, where they were transported by 33 muleteers. in 1795, María Francesca Saveria Gonzaga, Duchess of Medinaceli and Feria and Marchinoness of Priego, ordered to master poetter José de Torres a luxury lamp made of clay, silver and gold, after a model she had designed herself. Pottery was then a family business, with specific tasks dedicated to women; there is no doubt that, at the end of the 18th century, pottery was the main source of income in the town, complemented with low-yielding cultivation of grain, olive trees and grapevine, and cattle-breeding.
In the next century, the demand in pottery pieces was increased in the aftermath of the improvement of the economic situation of the country, probably causing an increase in the number of workshops and employed men and women.
In the early decades of the 20th century, the new railway station of Zafra allowed the muleteers to travel on longer distance and being used as a commercial attraction in Madrid, Saragossa and Barcelona. Some of them even travelled with their stuff to France, Cuba, Argentina and the United States. In 1950, 30 muleteeers met in Paris.
In 1973, Salvatierra hosted 50 out of the 73 pottery workshops recorded in the Province of Badajoz. The town was then the most important pottery center in Extremadura, and, most probably, in Spain.
Pottery industry, like other local industries all over Spain, experienced a severe structural crisis in the 1980s. Competition with new, synthetic materials, generalization of the use of fridges, and completion of freshwater supply decreased the demand in jars that were mostly prized to store freshwater. In Salvatierra, the sharp decrease in income caused disinterest of new generations who prefered emigration to towns. Several workshops were closed and the organization of the production was dramatically changed.
According to the local potters' associaiton, there were only 22 workshops left in 2009, that is, one half of the number recorded in the 1980s. Skilled manpower was scarce and most pieces were intended to decoration, which was not the consumer's priority because of general crisis. The Salvatierra potters, however, had been able to adapt the new demand without losing their specific skills.
In the early years of the 21st century, Mayoress Juliana Naharro Hernández proposed to set up a pottery museum in the town to record the traditional local techniques, about to be definitively lost, and to show them to future generations, in connection with the workshops still in activity. Inaugurated in April 2001, the museum was granted in 2002 the title of Identity Museum by the Government of Extremadura.
[José Ángel Calero Carretero & Juan Diego Carmona. 2010. La historia y la alfarería de Salvatierra de los Barros contada desde su museo de identidad. Pp. 215-230 in: Felix Iñesta Mena (Ed.) La divulgación de la historia y otros estudios sobre Extremadura. Actas de las X Jornadas de Historia en LLerena, 23-24 October 2009]
The acorn recalls that Salvatierra de los Barros is a main center of breeding of Iberian ham, under the denomination of protected origin "Dehesa de Extremadura".
Ivan Sache, 16 March 2020