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Municipality of Mengíbar (Jaén Province, Andalusia, Spain)

image by Blas Delgado, Eduardo Panizo and Ivan Sache, 23 Oct 2005

Introduction
Description

See also:

Introduction

The municipality of Mengíbar (9,378 inhabitants in 2008; 6,200 ha) is located in the fertile Campiña of Jaén, watered by the Guadalquivir, 20 km north of the provincial capital.

The Mengíbar Sword, found on 14 June 1914 in the Guadalquivir, dates back to the 9th century BC and belonged to the Tartesi. In the hamlet of Maquiz, the German Archeological Institute has excavated the remains of a proto-Iberic settlement, dated from the late Copper Age. Remains of an Iberic temple and necropolis were also found in Maquiz, as well as remains from different Roman periods; this body of evidence indicates that Maquiz was once a powerful town, but the historians are not completely sure of its identity. The writing "T. Sempronio Graccho Decuctori Populus Iluturgitanus," engraved on a stone dated form the1st century BC, seems to demonstrate that the town was Iliturgi, mentioned by Pliny as located near the Guadalquivir in the "Conventus Cordubensis." The town was seized from the Carthaginians by the Romans in 217 BP but in in 211 BP, Iliturgi took the Carthaginian party; Cornelius Scipio is said to have been burned alive in one of the towers of the town, after having refused to surrender. In 206 BP, his son Scipio Africanus took Iliturgi and suppressed the town, which was subsequently refounded by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, as the market town of Iliturgi Forum Iulium. Iliturgi was also of strategic significance for communications since it watched a convenient ford on the Guadalquivir.

Iliturgi was destroyed during the Moorish invasion and its inhabitants moved to Mengíbar. In the 11th-13th centuries, the fortress of Mengíbar was part of the defensive network of Jaén. In 1225, King Fernando III the Saint seized the fortress, which proved, together with other ones, very useful in the reconquest of Jaén. The king granted in 1245 the Commandery of Maquiz, including a tower and lands, to the Order of Santiago; it seems, however, that there was no tower at Maquiz at the time. In 1458, King Henry IV fled the black plague that scoured Jaén; he stayed for a few days in Mengíbar, hosted by Constable Lucas de Iranzo. The king must have enjoyed his stay, since he came back in 1464, when a bull corrida was organized for him.

On 6 November 1574, King Philip II granted the title of "villa" to Mengíbar, which seceded from Jaén. The king had to cancel the sale of the town to Rodrigo Ponce de León made on 13 June 1573. The Battle of Mengíbar took place on 16 July 1808. The Third Division of the Napoleonic army was repelled to Bailén by the 1st Division of the Spanish army, commanded by General Reding. Mengíbar claims to be the site of the first defeat of the Napoleonic army, a title usually granted to Bailén; the Battle of Bailèen, which took place a few days later, was indeed of much more significance.

Source: Municipal website

Ivan Sache, 09 Aug 2009

Description

On 3 August 2004, the Municipal Council asked the General Directorate of Local Administration to confirm the municipal flag, arms and logotype that had been previously approved by Decree 18/2000 on 24 January 2000 (BOJA No. 22, 22 February 2000), which was done by Decree of 17 September 2004, published in the Andalusian official gazette (Boletín Oficial de la Junta de Andalucía, BOJA) No. 195 on 5 October 2004.

The relevant parts of the Decree are the following:

Coat of arms: Spanish shape. Truncated [Per bend]: The upper part argent, an olive tree proper made of two trunks, surmounted by a five-pointed star gules; and the lower part gules, dexter, a fortress walled, crenellated and masoned sable with an access gate at mid point, all or, inside it a square tower of the same masoned sable. Under the fortress, in the middle of the shield, is shown a medal made of a cross, with four equal arms gules suerpimposed on four other argent, ending in concave curves with a globe argent, in the middle an oval escutcheon azure charged with a breast-plate and a helmet crossed at dexter and sinister, respectively, in saltire by a sword and a spear, all argent. In the four quarters formed by the arms of the cross are four fleurs-de-lis or touching the curves of the white arms. The small upper globe holds an elliptic laurel wreath. A general border of fourteen pieces, in turn gules a tower or with three crenels port and windows azure and masoned sable, argent a lion rampant gules crowned or armed and langued of the same. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown closed.

Flag: - Rectangular flag, of taffeta, with a proportions of three units in length on two in hoist, the field tierced by three symmetric stripes: blue, white and green, respectively, integrally charged by the local coat of arms, with its crown, its geometric axis matching the center of the flag, with a height 2/3 of the flag hoist.

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. 195, pp. 21,243-21,244, 05 Oct 2004

The Anthem to the Flag of Mengíbar ("Himno a la Bandera de Mengíbar"), composed by Diego Galindo Bailón (b. 1931) was sung for the first time on 21 July 1993 (which indicates that the flag was used, unofficially, long before its official adoption).

Source: Municipal website

The medal on the coat of arms is the Medal of Mengíbar, created by Royal Order on 18 April 1816 to reward the winners of the battle.

Ivan Sache, 09 Aug 2009