May 2009

This issue is made up of two stamps commemorating the 900 years of the death of King Alfonso VI of León and Castilla and the 900 years of the death of Saint Domingo de La Calzada.

Alfonso VI de León y Castilla

The first stamp depicts the portrait of the monarch belonging to a miniature kept in the Tumbo A (XII century) of the Archive of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The second stamp depicts the capital letter U of the scroll, dated in Avignon, 22nd June 1362, by which indulgence is given to all the faithful helping to build the sepulchral chapel of Santo Domingo de la Calzada.. This is one of the first portraits of this Saint who appears in the stamp bearing the architect’s pole and accompanied by freed slaves praying behind him. The text in this scroll is in Latin and it is kept in the Archive of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo de la Calzada.

Alfonso VI of León and Castilla, known as Alfonso the Brave, was also king of Galicia. He was the son of Fernando I of Castilla and Sancha of León. When his mother died, he repelled the expansionist claims of his brother Sancho who was killed by Vellido Dolfos in the siege of Zamora. Once his brother dies and his other brother García is made prisoner in the castle of Luna, Alfonso consolidates his throne over Castilla y León and takes Galicia, Alava, Vizacaya, Guipúzcoa and La Brueba, taking on the title of Emperor in 1077. He recovered Toledo, the legitimate headquarters of the Hispanic Empire in 1085 and the place where he died in 1109. He was buried in the monastery of Sahagún. Alfonso VI provided security in St. Jame’s Way and promoted the beginning of the Cistercian reform.

Santo Domingo de la Calzada

Domingo García, known as Santo Domingo de La Calzada, was born in 1019 in Vitoria de Rioja, in the province of Burgos. He was a collaborator of Gregorio, bishop of Ostia. When they arrived to Calahorra, they built a bridge over the Oja river and then a carriageway to enable pilgrims to reach Santiago. His work was acknowledged by Alfonso VI who appointed him as the person in charge of the various works in St James’s Way. Santo Domingo performed miracles before and after his death which took place in 1109 in the town named after him in La Rioja.