Ayuntamiento de El Franco

The Ayuntamiento de El Franco is the seat of the municipality’s local government and has its town hall in A Caridá (La Caridad), the capital, on the Plaza de España next to the park. The town became the capital in 1852, after a 19th century in which the council kept changing its seat; until then it had been in the parish of Valdepares. The former town hall stood in the Parque de María Cristina, and the current one occupies a new building beside the park.

The old casa consistorial still bears the municipality’s coat of arms, with the legend recalling El Franco’s independence from Castropol in the 16th century. According to the council itself, the shield follows the shape of Spain’s, and between the upper quarters and the crown reads “Franco por el Rey, libre por su Ley”, a phrase taken from the Asiento Real kept in the Arca de las tres llaves at the church of San Juan de Prendonés.