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Miranda de Ebro (Municipality, Castilla y León, Spain)

Last modified: 2014-12-28 by ivan sache
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Flag of Miranda de Ebro - Image from the Escudos y Banderas de la Provincia de Burgos website, 15 February 2014


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Presentation of Miranda de Ebro

The municipality of Miranda de Ebro (41,365 inhabitants in 2012, therefore the 2nd most populous town in the province; 10,133 ha; municipal website) is located in the northeast of the Burgos province, on the border with La Rioja and Álava province, 90 km from Burgos and 30 km from Vitoria. The municipality is made of the town of Miranda de Ebro and of the villages of Ayuelas (57 inh.), Guinicio (27 inh.), Ircio (81 inh.), Montañana (15 inh.), Orón (255 inh.) and Suzana (76 inh.).

Miranda de Ebro is located on river Ebro, at a strategic location on the borders of Castile, La Rioja and the Basque Country. The valley was crossed by an important Roman way; remains of Roman settlements have been found in Carbiana, Arce-Mirapérez, Ircio and Revenga.
Miranda de Ebro was chartered in 1099 by Alfonso X. All goods shipped to or from the Basque Country, Burgos and La Rioja had to cross the bridge over river Ebro, which increased the wealth of the town. On 27 November 1254, Alfonso X the Wise granted to Miranda del Ebro a May Fair (Feria de Mayo). Alfonso XI granted on 2 April 1332 to Vitoria and Miranda del Ebro a second fair, originally called Lent Fair and subsequently renamed Angel Fair and March Fair. Granting fairs was a convenient means to fix populations and to attract traders in strategic places.
In the last third of the 14th century, the defensive role of Miranda del Ebro was increased. Count Tollo of Biscay was granted in 1358 the Pillory Hill by the Bishop of Calahorra. In 1449, Pedro Sarmiento, Count of Salinas decided to build there a fortress to control salt trade; an army sent from Burgos seized the town and stopped the erection of the fortress. A few years later, Diego Sarmiento, Pedro's son, transformed the old St. Mary church into a fortress, making stables with the chapel and desecrating graves to establish the foundations of the fortress. A sentence of the Court of Valladolid transferred in 1772 the fortress to the Royal Domain. Progressively ruined, the fortress was eventually restored in 2004.

Christians and Jews lived together in the town until the expelling of the Jews from Spain by the Catholic Monarchs and the transformation of the synagogue into the Town Hall. The 16th century was the Gilded Age for arts in Miranda de Ebro, then a focus of Romanesque sculpture. Pedro López de Gámiz and his followers maintained for centuries the artistic fame of the town.
After a flood by river Ebro on 19-21 June 1775, several buildings of the town were suppressed, including the old Town Hall and the bridge, which had lost five of its seven arches. Francisco Alejo de Aranguren, an architect from La Rioja, built in neo-classic style a new bridge, inaugurated in 1780; together with Santos Ángel de Ochandátegui, he designed the new Town Hall, the project being revised in 1778 by Ventura Rodríguez, architect of the Council of Castile.
Miranda de Ebro was involved in the Carlist Wars at the end of the 19th century. The Carlist general Carnicer was sentenced to death in the town. During the rebellion of the Segovia Regiment, stationed in Miranda de Ebro, Rafael Ceballos Escalera, General in Chief of the North Armies, was killed on 16 August 1837 by the mutineers.

Miranda de Ebro remained for long a rural town. In the middle of the 19th century, more than 50% of the population was made of farmers; there were a few grain mills, five tileries, four cloth mills and a few other workshops. The paper mills established at the beginning of the 19th century would later significantly contribute to the economical boom of the town.
Industrialization of the town actually started in 1864, following the building of the Madrid-Irún and Tudela-Bilbao railways by the Compañía de los Caminos de Hierro del Norte de España. The railway station was designed by the English engineer Charles Blacker Vignoles in Victorian style; the engineer also designed the railway bridge over the Ebro.
From 1846 to 1860, the population of the town increased to 2,896 inhabitants (+ 66%). The foundry Fundiciones Perea, set up in 1919, is one of the three bell and clock factories still active in Spain.

Ivan Sache, 15 February 2014


Symbols of Miranda de Ebro

The flag of Miranda de Ebro (photo, photo, photo) is crimson red with the municipal coat of arms in the middle.
A municipal book of accounts, dated 1625, describes the flag as tafetán carmesí, escudo, cordones y lanza (Crimson fabric, coat of arms; tassels and finial) (López de Gámiz - Boletín del Instituto Municipal de Historia de Miranda de Ebro, 20: 57-58, 1989).

The coat of arms of Miranda de Ebro is "Azure a bridge proper ensigned with a tower or port and windows gules masoned sable surrounded by two eagles sable beaked and armed gules, in base waves azure and argent. The shield surmounted by a crown. The whole placed on a cartel bronze".
The coat of arms was granted on 4 September 1535 by Charles I. No image of the original coat of arms has been kept. Oddly enough, none of the historical coats of arms still visible in the town matches the description in the grant. The coat of arms represented on the facade of the Town Hall, on the Market Square, and on the Charles III bridge, all show the bridge with two towers flanking a double-headed eagle. The shield is surmounted by a Royal crown open. A coat of arms recently discovered in the gardens of the Sacred-Heart college has a similar pattern.
Jose Javier Santos Zubizarreta (blog) believes that the first coat of arms of the town shows a castle, a lion and a knight, possibly inspired by the capitals of the old St. Nicholas (today Holy Ghost) church and of the Bardauri church. Why the original design of the coat of arms was altered remains a matter of speculation. Some say that the coat of arms imposed by the "foreign" sovereign Charles II, who suppressed the Revolt of the Comuneros, could not have been popular in Miranda de Ebro.

Ivan Sache, 15 February 2014