Cuellar Slabs

Lastras de Cuéllar is a municipality located in the north of the province of Segovia, and is located halfway between its main economic centers: Cantalejo, Cuéllar and Segovia; In addition, the uninhabited areas of San Esteban, La Serreta and Santa María de Sacedón are located within its term.

The river Cega crosses its terminus, creating a landscape of alders, birches, vergueras and Scots pines along its banks. It has a lake complex of special interest formed by the Carrizal and Tenca lagoons.

Symbols

The heraldic shield that represents the municipality is emblazoned as follows:

"Medium and party listening. First of gules, royal alférez with silver twisted pendant. Second of silver, dragon of siple. Third of azur, bridge of a stone arch mazonated in sable and lastra (losa) on stick. To the bell, crown of marquis. »

Official Gazette of Castile and Leon No. 200/1991 of 17 October 1991

History

Laguna del Carrizal.

It has its origin from the XII century, like the rest of the populated nuclei belonging to the Community of Villa and Tierra de Cuéllar emerged after the repopulation of Cuéllar, and was known until the XIX century only as La Lastra, later becoming adopt its current name.

In the middle of the XIX century, Pascual Madoz in his dictionary said that it had a town hall, it consisted of about 150 houses distributed in several streets and articulated with respect to a square. In addition, it had a school, two hermitages and a parish church. Its population was 135 residents, who produced cereals and legumes, as well as cattle, sheep and horses.

Geography

Fragment of Page 430 of the 2008 Spanish National Topographic Map, depicting Lastras de Cuéllar

The town of Lastras de Cuéllar is located in the central area of the Iberian Peninsula, in the extreme north of the province of Segovia, it has an area of 65.42 km², and its coordinates are 41°17′50″N 4°06′27″W / 41.29722, -4.10750.

Northwest: ♪	North: Hontalbilla	Northeast: Future
West: ♪		This: Cantalejo
Southwest: Zarzuela del Pinar	South: Aguilafuente	Sureste: Cabezuela

Climate

The climate of Lastras de Cuéllar is continentalized Mediterranean, as a consequence of the high altitude and its distance from the coast. Its main characteristics are:

• The average annual temperature is 11.40 °C with an important thermal oscillation between the day and night that can exceed 20 °C. Winters are long and cold, with frequent fogs and frosts, while the summers are short and hot, with maxims around 30 °C, but fresh minimums, slightly exceeding 13 °C. The Spanish saying "Nine months of winter and three months of hell" characterizes it perfectly.

• The annual rainfall is low (423.10 mm) but is distributed in a relatively balanced way throughout the year except in the summer that is the most dry season (64.40 mm). The mountains that delimit the plateau hold the winds and the rains, except for the west, where the absence of large mountains opens a corridor to the Atlantic Ocean by which they penetrate most of the precipitations that come to the west. Lastras de Cuéllar.

In the Köppen climate classification it corresponds to a Csb (Mediterranean oceanic) climate, a transition between Csa (Mediterranean) and Cfb (oceanic) due to altitude. Unlike the Mediterranean, it has a milder summer, but unlike the oceanic there is a dry season in the warmer months.

Average climate parameters of Lastras de Cuéllar in the period 1970-1999
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Total precipitation (mm)	35.20	39.00	25.20	44.40	58.90	34.30	15.10	15	27.30	43.30	40.80	44.50	423.10
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment. Precipitation data for the period 1970-1999 in Lastras de Cuéllar

Demographics

The town of Lastas de Cuéllar has a population of 410 inhabitants (INE 2014), far from the 1,456 it reached in the middle of the century XX. Due to the rural exodus, many of its inhabitants emigrated to other regions of Spain, preferably Catalonia, the Basque Country and the cities of Madrid and Valladolid.^{[citation required]}

Administration and politics

Mayors since the 1979 elections

Period	Name	Party
1979-1983	José María Arribas Arranz	UCD
1983-1987	Ángel Martín García	PSOE
1987-1991	Eduardo Ricardo Herrero Matarranz	PSOE
1991-1995	María Victoria Avial Arribas	P
1995-1999	María Victoria Avial Arribas	P
1999-2003	Angel Efrén Martín Cabrero	PSOE
2003-2007	Angel Efrén Martín Cabrero	PSOE
2007-2011	María Victoria Avial Arribas	P
2011-2015	María Victoria Avial Arribas	P
2015-2019	Andrés García Sanz	AE
2019-	Andrés García Sanz	Cs

Heritage

Plaza Mayor and Lastras de Cuéllar Town Hall.

In the center of the municipality is the church of Santa María Magdalena, a single-nave building with Baroque plasterwork, in the same style as its main altarpiece. In addition, two hermitages are located away from the urban nucleus, that of Humilladero and that of Nuestra Señora de Sacedón, the latter belonging to the deserted area of the same name, and which houses a Renaissance altarpiece of the well-known maestro de Sacedón, which owes its name to this work.

Near the town is La Serreta, a forest dedicated to hunting for centuries, where Beltrán de la Cueva, the first Duke of Alburquerque, built a palace in the 17th century XV which is still preserved; Currently there is still activity on the farm, frequented by King Juan Carlos I and considered one of the oldest hunting farms in Spain. Near the palace, another small hermitage is preserved, which belonged in his time to the deserted area name.

Its main festivals are on September 8 in honor of the Nativity of Our Lady. Also celebrate other minor festivals: On Pentecost Easter Monday, 50 days after Holy Week, the Pilgrimage of the Virgin of Sacedón is celebrated. Every year 2 couples of mayordomos are appointed who are in charge of caring for the hermitage throughout the year and organizing the pilgrimage. The Virgin on her wheeled carriage pushed by the butlers and dressed in her best clothes leaves the church of La Magdalena where the butlers and all the residents of the town who have wanted to accompany them have taken her a week before and where they have been praying her novenas every day in the afternoon; between the bells and at the door of the church, witness the first of the paloteos that the dancers dressed in traditional costumes dance to the sound of the dulzainas; In the past, only men danced, since women were not even allowed to dance a jota in front of the Virgin, but today the group of paloteos is made up of men and women who dance together and give more showiness to the party. Thus begins a long procession in which the Virgin advances slowly, stopped by the people who dance jotas in front of her and by the paloteos that are danced until they reach the door of the hermitage located 1 km from the town where the last dance is danced., the contradanza, and where the dancers form an arch through which the Virgin passes to enter her hermitage where she will wait until next year when they return to look for her.

In the artisan field throughout its history, pottery activity has stood out.

Virgin of Salcedón

Name

We do not know the exact origin of its name in what context it appears, and we do not have direct sources that speak of when said carving was made, we know that the depopulated Salcedón (who venerated this image and settled around its hermitage) it appears mentioned in the jurisdiction of Sepúlveda (a text made in 1076 by Alfonso VI of León and ratified in 1305 by King Ferdinand IV of Castile)

Could be derived from the Latin word salictum. This hypothesis is defended on two pillars; On the one hand, the word itself, through the laws of phonetic evolution of Latin, could derive from this cult term to the colloquial term Salcedón that we know today:

Salictum> Latin term Salictun > the final “m” drops and changes to “n” Salicton> the final "u" closes in "o" Salciton> the brief stressed vowel "i" changes position and joins the consonant cluster "lc" Salceton> the vowel "i" short tonic becomes "e" Salcedon> the voiceless plosive "t" tends to become "d"

On the other hand, within an analysis more typical of the social sciences, the Latin word we are referring to means “sacedal”, “place of willows” and even a “humid place”. This description theoretically would come to name the place where the image of the Virgin appeared, which coincides with the real description of the place where the hermitage stands, since next to it there is a large meadow with some ponds, white poplars (poplars) and streams; an area that at the time the hermitage was built and the image appeared could be called by this term.

Legend

The legend of the Virgin of Salcedón tells that while some shepherds were walking in the fields, the image of the virgin appeared to them. This one, she sat on a rock and it became the carving we know today. Later, the neighbors tried to take it to the nearby town of Aguilafuente for which the image was loaded on a cart pulled by oxen, however, the oxen could not pull the cart, they got stuck, the legs of the feet sank. animals and cart wheels. This fact was interpreted as a message from the Virgin, who did not want to be moved from the place where she had appeared, so the image remained in that place, on which a hermitage was built, which is currently the hermitage. of Our Lady of Salcedón.

Artistic analysis

It is a carving with a round shape, difficult to date (around the 12th century). It is made of polychrome wood and is preserved in the hermitage of Nuestra Señora de Salcedón, a hermitage to which it lends its name.

The image represents the Virgin with the child, this type of representations are very common in the Middle Ages and although at first they try to relegate the image of Mary as mother of Jesus (whom they represent with adult features) over time They are going to grant greater importance to the Virgin.

In this case, the virgin appears seated on a throne dressed in a golden dress and a blue cloak that comes from her head and falls covering the right part of her body until it reaches the front, creating a series of folds on the the knees that make a certain contrast with the light and bring dynamism to the image, contrasting with the regular and straight lines of the rest of the carving.

Similarly, the Virgin holds a flower in her left hand. Normally the sculptures of these centuries are usually represented with a series of very characteristic and symbolic objects. In this case, the first virgins usually carry an apple in their hand that over time becomes a flower, both representations, apart from being decorative, are loaded with strong symbolism and allude to paradise.

The boy appears on his mother's left knee, standing with his face turned, looking at her. He has childish features, although he is a small child without being a baby. The fact that he is not depicted as a very young child is done to emphasize the importance of Jesus, even in this case that he is depicted as a child, as a man. In his left hand he carries a globe of the world, while the right hand appears raised in blessing, a very common way in carvings from this period. He wears a golden outfit similar to that of the virgin, so as not to create a contrast between the image of the virgin and the child. This fact that the colors of their clothes are similar could be related to an attempt by the author of the carving to establish a connection between the virgin and the child, something that is also highlighted in the look between the mother and her son or how the arm of the virgin surrounds the body of the child. During the Middle Ages, the carvings of the virgins went from an image of Mary as a mere throne on which Christ sits, to granting more and more importance to the virgin, who surrounds her with her hand or establishes a connection with her son.

On the other hand, the proportions are lukewarmly followed, in this way we find ourselves with a hand and head, in the case of the virgin, of a larger size. This fact should not be related to a lack of technique on the part of the author, rather he tries to enhance parts of the body over the others, fleeing from the realism that would characterize earlier (Classical art) and later (Renaissance) stylistic periods, giving them a symbolic importance. The most characteristic lines are the vertical ones, which predominate in the carving (the virgin's arm and hand, the child's own body, the virgin's legs and are even glimpsed in the folds of the dress); However, the line that is made between the mother and the child is also of marked importance. An inclined line that is generated by the child's gaze towards the mother and that is enhanced by the position of Jesus' arm.

Regarding the color analysis, the two figures use realistic colors in their physical features (brown colors for hair, pink flesh...) although it is worth noting the colors of their dresses since they use gold and the blue. This choice of colors for the virgin's clothing and cloak are very common in the Middle Ages and, above all, in the Renaissance. In both cases these are colors with a great symbolic charge, the first is related to wealth due to its chromatic relationship with gold. In the second case, blue was a difficult color to obtain, which was often obtained with minerals from Asia Minor, so it was a very expensive and exclusive tone that could only be used on very special surfaces and carvings, as in this one. case, for the mantle of the Virgin. In addition, it should be noted that the colors gold-orange and blue are opposite, they are more enhanced if they are put together, this, together with the fact that details are achieved with the paint (such as the gold finish on the mantle of the virgin) lead us to think that the author of the carving knew the plastic arts, that the painting treatment of the carving was not accidental.

Due to the previously mentioned characteristics, this sculpture is difficult to inscribe in a specific artistic style since it mixes Romanesque characteristics (such as the frontality of the composition, the wood carving, the proportions and the symbolism or the subject matter itself). the composition); along with others that are typical of the Gothic (the symmetry of the composition is broken by the image of the child being on the left knee, the representation of Mary as a throne is avoided by surrounding the body of her son with her arm as well as the child is depicted looking at his mother)

Currently, the image is usually dressed in cloaks of different colors, embroidered, which rest on her head, crowns of precious metals and dresses; fruit of the different donations that the faithful have made over the years to this image.