Last modified: 2006-02-05 by antonio martins
Keywords: belmonte | coat of arms | tower (silver) | hill |
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It is a quite typical portuguese municipal flag, with the coat of arms
centered on a background quartered (meaning town
rank) of green and white. The coat of arms is gules, on a mound vert,
a two storey castle tower argent, opened void. Mural crown argent with
four visible towers (town rank) and white
scroll reading in black upper case letters "VILA DE
BELMONTE". This should be one of the “cleanest” coats of arms in
portuguese civic heraldry, which unfortanately
is often too “busy”. The name "Belmonte" means "Fair hill" ("fair"
in the sense of "beautiful"), so that is the hill on the coat of arms.
António Martins, 21 Mar 1999
The tower stands for the medieval castle of Belmonte, part of the 2nd
defensive line of the border.
Jorge Candeias, 21 Oct 1998
Quartered of green and white.
Jorge Candeias, 24 Jul 1999
Belmonte is a town located in inner Portugal in a mountainous area
(wich can be guessed by it’s name: the contraction of the words "belo"
and "monte", meaning "beautiful" and "hill", respectively) in the north
of the Castelo Branco District (old province of
Beira Baixa and future region of
Beira Interior). The municipality is small (114,6
sq. km), scarsely populated (less than 7420 inhabitants in 5 communes, as of 1990)
and poor, being it’s major economical resources the agriculture,
as far as I know.
Jorge Candeias, 21 Oct 1998
