image by Sérgio Horta, 11 Oct 2007
Last modified: 2012-04-13 by antónio martins
Keywords: vila do porto | coat of arms: st. mary | coat of arms (chief: eagle) | goshhawk (brown) | quinas: 2 | sails |
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image by Sérgio Horta, 11 Oct 2007
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It is a fairily typical portuguese municipal flag,
with the coat of arms centered on a quartered background
(town status) of white and
red.
António Martins, 11 Oct 2007
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The arms are Argent the Virgin Mary clad and complexioned Argent and
mantled Azure with edges Or and crowned Or and on a chief Gules a
goshawk Proper holding an escutcheon Azure
charged with five plates Argent set in saltire. Mural crown argent with four
visible towers (town rank) and white scroll
reading in black upper case letters "Vila do Porto".
António Martins, 11 Oct 2007
I think the chief prevents the coat of arms from being too empty
graphically and being a tad blasfemous, too…
António Martins, 12 Oct 2007
Plain (monocolored) portuguese subnational flags are
not allowed to have armless
variations: plain flags always carry the coat of arms.
Jorge Candeias, 18 Jul 1999
Sérgio
Horta mentions a previous design with a red and white gyronny flag (and
differently worded blazon, though for identical arms)
adopted and published in the official journal
Diário do Governo : II
Série in 1956.05.15, an unusually late date.
António Martins, 11 Oct 2007
The gyronny pattern means city status for the municipality seat, which is
not the case of Vila do Porto; this previous legal prescription (and use?)
was therefore a mistake. Along with the confusing situation of some
Portuguese cities include in their names the word "vila" ("town"), and
the name word "porto" being identical to the
Oporto city name in Portuguese, vexillologist
Adolf Duran in one of his articles about flags in Portugal
[drn94] states incorrectly that
Oporto is both a city and a town (perhaps influenced
by the curious status of Madrid, which is
officially a town (villa), in spite of being Spain’s
largest settlement).
António Martins, 11 Oct 2007
Vila do Porto municipality had 5578 inhabitants in 2001 and consists of 5
communes covering 97,18 km², taking up the whole of
St. Mary Island (Santa Maria). It is part of
Azores Region (also a NUTS II and traditional
province), former Ponta Delgada District.
"Vila do porto" is Portuguese for "harbour town" or "port town", of
which there’s no reflection on the arms; these
instead are canting for the name of the island.
António Martins, 11 Oct 2007
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