Origin of the name The origin of this toponym is, as for many other places, unknown. The name
Lucronio was first used in a document from 965 where
García Sánchez I of Pamplona donated the place so named to the
Monastery of San Millán. In the Fuero of Logroño from 1095 it appeared under the name
Logronio, except once when it was called
illo Gronio. The most broadly accepted theses seem to be those which indicate it is a late
latinization by prefixing the article "
lo/illo" to the old toponym
Gronio/
Gronno, a word of
Celtic origin which means
the ford or
the pass. It is believed that this name was due to the frequent use of this place to cross the
Ebro river. Other historians have proposed alternative theories, such as a possible derivation from
Lucus Brun or
Lucus Beronius ("Sacred place in the Beronian forest"), but its etymology remains unknown.
Titles John II of Castile granted it the title of "City" on 7 February 1431 in
Palencia and ratified it on 20 February in
Valladolid, thus it stopped being called "Village", despite there being no explicit justification of the reasons for that change. 20 July 1444 the same king added the titles of "Very noble", , and "Very loyal", , which up until today appear in the seal of the city. In this case, the reason was the loyalty of the habitants against the homonymous king
John II of Aragon, because despite the
«long war, and wounds and deaths, and robberies, and fires, and damages and oppressions», the city remained loyal to the service of the king of Castile. On 5 July 1523, the king
Francis I granted it the three
fleurs-de-lis for the
shield of the city for its resistance during the French siege in 1521. It also received by Royal Decree the title of "Excellence" 6 December 1854 from
Isabella II, as a reward for its behavior during the
cholera epidemic which devastated the city. ==Geography==