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Town of La Guardia de Jaén (Andalusia, Spain)

Jaen Province

2:3
image by Ivan Sache and WP User:Covi, 18 Jul 2009

Introduction
Description

See also:

Introduction

The municipality of La Guardia de Jaén (3,928 inhabitants in 2008; 3,843 ha) is located 10 km south-east of Jaén.

La Guardia de Jaén was founded 1500 years BC as the Iberic fortified settlement of Mentesa Bastia / Mentesa Bastetana. After the Roman conquest, the town became the "oppidum" of Mentesa Bastetanorum; one of the biggest towns of Hispania Citerior, Mentesa had there much more inhabitants (c. 5,000) than today's La Guardia. The town was famous for its mines, where the finest gold was extracted and directly shipped to Rome for the Emperor's use. Epigraphic remains confirm the descriptions made by Pliny and Polybius, who both portrayed a wealthy town with beautiful palaces, temples and thermae. During the Wisigothic period, Mentesa superseded Jaén as the capital of the Carthaginian province. Controlling strategic ways of communication - roads and rivers -, Mentesa was the seat of a bishporic as early as the 3rd century; its first known bishop, Pardo, attended the Council of Illiberis (Granada) in 309, while his successors attended to a dozen of councils held in Toledo from 280 to 858.

After the Moorish conquest, the town, renamed Mantissa / Mantisa, was the capital of a "cora" (province) until superseded by Yayyan (Jaén). One of the earliest and biggest Moorish fortresses in the Iberic paeninsula was built in the town in the 7th century; the fortress was involved in several fightings between different clans. According to all the sources of the time, the fortress, located on a strongly defended height and supplied in water by several sources, was deemed impregnable. The First General Chronicle (13th century) claims that Tariq, marching in the 8th century from Écija against Toledo, seized the fortress of Mantissa and destroyed it; archeological remains, however, do not confirm the chronicle. The fortress is mentioned in several chronicles reporting the Muladi rebellion in the 9th century.

Seized in 1244 by King Fernando III the Saint, the fortress was several times reconquerred by the Moors, but for short periods, until the fall of Granada in 1492. After the fall of Jaén in 1246, the fortress of La Guardia became located closer to the border with the Nasrid kingdom, protecting, together with the castle of Pegalajar, the Kingdom of Castile from the Moorish raids. The name of the town (lit., "The Guard") dates back to that time. In 1456, Gonzalo de Zúñiga, Bishop of Jaén, was killed in La Guardia when fighting the Moors; the Moorish warlord Reduan was killed shortly after. After the fall of Granada, the fortress lost its strategic position and the town declined. La Guardia was transferred in 1465 to Ruíz González de Mexía and later made a Marquisate granted to the Mexía / Messía family, who kept the castle and the domain until the suppression of the feudal system in the 19th century. The castle was sacked, burned down and partially ruined by the French in 1802.

Source: Municipal website

Ivan Sache, 18 Jul 2009

Description

The flag and arms of La Guardia de Jaén were approved by the Municipal Council on 10 October 2005 and submitted on 14 October 2005 to the General Directorate of Local Administration, which confirmed them by Decree on 25 October 2005, published in the Andalusian official gazette (Boletín Oficial de la Junta de Andalucía, BOJA) No. 217 on 7 November 2005.

The relevant parts of the Decree are the following:

Coat of arms: Azure a castle or masoned sable port and windows azure surrounded by two keys affronty or. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown closed.

Flag: Rectangular flag in proportions 2:3, made of five vertical stripes in proportions 1/8, 1/8, 1/2, 1/8 and 1/8, the outer blue, the median yellow and blue with a yellow castle masoned sable port and windows azure in the middle.

The symbols should be registered on the Andalusian Register of Local Entities, with their official written description and graphics (as originally submitted, but unfortunately not appended to the Decree).

Source: BOJA No. 217, p. 49, 07 Nov 2005

Ivan Sache, 18 Jul 2009