Portugal - province flags

Last modified: 2005-12-17 by antonio martins
Keywords: traditional province | province |
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• About portuguese provinces
• List of Portuguese traditional provinces (clickable map)
  • Minho
  • Douro Litoral
  • Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro
  • Beira Alta
  • Beira Baixa
  • Beira Litoral
  • Estremadura
  • Ribatejo
  • Alto Alentejo
  • Baixo Alentejo
  • Algarve
  • Madeira
  • Açores

• Subdivisions of Portugal
• Portugal

• Regiões de Portugal continental

About portuguese provinces

Portuguese provinces, created in the late 1920ies and planned to replace the districts, never had though any administrative significance.
António Martins, 13 Sep 1999

There are no provincial flags in Portugal, except for Azores and Madeira (provinces which are also autonomous regions, with official government-recognized flags).

It should be noted that portuguese middle-level subdivision (between municipality and the country as a whole), unlike the municipalities, have been changing a lot through the last couple of centuries and different schemes may even co-exist at a given time. (The main exception is Algarve, which is constant in almost all subdivision schemes.) This state of affairs is reflected in local flags and other identity symbols — while the municipalities have them clearly marked and defined, provincial and other upper-level divisions either lack them or have scarcely known and used symbology (district flags, f.i.).

There was an attempt to research “usable” subnational flags and coat of arms, made by Simas Alves de Azevedo, a well-known portuguese haraldist [azv9X], with scarce results. Commented and illustrated here.

António Martins, 23 Mar 2005