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Sinlabajos (Municipality, Castilla y León, Spain)

Flag of Sinlabajos - Image by "Daarbos86", Wikimedia Commons, 1 November 2017

Presentation of Sinlabajos
Symbols of Sinlabajos

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Presentation of Sinlabajos

The municipality of Sinlabajos (124 inhabitants in 2016, 2,007 ha; municipal website) is located 60 km north of Ávila, on the border with the Province of Valladolid.

Sinlabajos was known in 1250 as Siet-Lavaios. Accordingly, sin does not mean "without" here; labajos is the local name of temporary ponds that appear following heavy rain events, around which early settlements were established.
At the time, Sinlabajos was the third mostly populated village in the Archdeconate of Arévalo and Madrigal, counting 630 inhabitants.

Ivan Sache, 6 March 2018

Symbols of Sinlabajos

The flag and arms of Sinlabajos are prescribed by an Approval adopted on 19 September 2017 by the Municipal Council, signed on 17 November 2017 by the Mayor and published on 24 November 2017 in the official gazette of Castilla y León, No. 226, p. 49,032 (text).
The symbols, supported by a memoir presented on 31 May 2017 by the Spanish Vexillological Society and validated on 17 August 2017 by the Chronicler of Arms of Castilla y León, are described as follows.

Flag: Rectangular flag, in length one and half the width. Garnet red, charged in the center with the municipal coat of arms, in height one half of the panel's width, and surrounded by the writing in golden yellow letters "SEÑORES, EL PUEBLO DE SINLABAJOS SALUDA A LOS FORASTEROS".
Coat of arms: Per fess, 1a. Azure a wheat field or charged with a lake azure and a sheep argent, 1b. Gules a fountain argent pouring chocolate proper, 2. Vert a martyr's palm or and a five-ring chain argent crossed per saltire. A bordure or inscribed with "SEÑORES, EL PUEBLO DE SINLABAJOS SALUDA A LOS FORASTEROS".

The first quarter recalls the etymology of the place's name and local agriculture.
The second quarter shows the village's fountain, where laundry was washed in separate, connected tanks. The fountain pours chocolate to recall the villagers' nickname, chocolateros.
The third quarter recalls the village's patron saint, Child St. Pelagius (St. Pelagius of Cordova, c. 912-926), said to have been martyred by Caliph Abd-ar-Rahman III. The chain and the palm recalls that Child Pelagius, captured by the Moors, was kept in a dungeon. The child's purity and devotion attracted Abd-ar-Rahman's attention, who promised him all kind of riches, provided he would convert to Islam. Pelagius' rebuttal ("O King, I am, I have been and I will be a Christian by the grace of God, all your riches are worthless. Do not believe that for such transient thinks I will abjure Christ, who is my Lord and yours too, want it or not") caused his martyr.
The motto, "Sirs, the village of Sinlabajos salutes foreigners" recalls that foreign visitors were traditionally welcomed from the tower of the St. Pelagius' church.
[Unofficial website]

Ivan Sache, 6 March 2018