Alcoutim Municipality (Portugal)

Last modified: 2006-02-05 by antonio martins
Keywords: alcoutim | coat of arms (letters) | aleo | castle (silver) | variation | head: moor | head: king | wreath |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors

• About the flag
• Version without the coat of arms
• Coat of arms variation
• Presentation of Alcoutim

• Municipalities of Portugal
• Portugal

• Page about the municipal flag and coat of arms of Alcoutim at Sérgio Horta’s website (in Portuguese).
  reported by Jorge Candeias, 29 Feb 1999
• Page about Alcoutim at the Portuguese Municipalities’s Association website (incl. iimage of the arms)
  reported by António Martins, 18 Nov 2001

About the flag

The municipal flag is a green and white quartered flag with the municipal coat of arms in the centre. I’ve seen two versions of the arms, and the one I drew is the one seen in older sources, so it may have been changed a little recently. The description, however, is identical: a red field with a silver castle in chef sided by a christian king to the left and a moor king to the right. The remaining field is occupied by the word "aleo" in gold surrounded by two crossed branches of some unidentifiable plant. The coat of arms is completed by a silver 4-towered mural crown and by a scroll reading "VILA DE ALCOUTIM".
Jorge Candeias, 01 May 1998

The word "aleo" are seen in other municipal arms, but I have no idea of their meaning, and the plant would perhaps mean something if only I could identify it. The chef relates to the traditional arms of the old Kingdom of the Algarve (the two kings) and the castle is a representation of the castle of Alcoutim, part of the old defense line of the border with Spain (by the way, I’ve visited the town recently, and in the other side of the river, near the spanish town of Sanlúcar de Guadiana there is an imponent spanish counterpart of the castle of Alcoutim).
Jorge Candeias, 01 May 1998

Version without the coat of arms

Quarterly of green and white.
Jorge Candeias, 08 Jul 1999

Coat of arms variation

In the recent variation of the shield, the letters are smaller, completely surrounded by the plant, and the castle has a different shape, similar to the shape of the castles in the portuguese arms.
Jorge Candeias, 01 May 1998

Presentation of Alcoutim

Alcoutim is a town that belongs to the district of Faro, region of Algarve. The municipality has an area of 575 km²., about 4400 inhabitants and is divided into 5 communes. It’s one of the poorest municipalities of the Algarve, if not the poorest, placed at the northeastern tip of the region, separated from Spain by river Guadiana and from the region of Alentejo by the river Vascão. It has nearly no industries, having an economy totally dependent on agriculture.
Jorge Candeias, 01 May 1998