Last modified: 2006-09-30 by antónio martins
Keywords: barreiro | coat of arms: boat | grapes (golden) | grapes (purple) | cross: saint james (purple) | rope | cogwheel |
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It is a quite typical portuguese municipal flag, with the coat of arms
centered on a background gyronny (meaning city
rank) of red and black. The coat of arms is argent on a counterchief of
two wavy fesses azure a Tagus estuary traditional fishing ship muleta
dressed gules below a rope knot per fess and throughout, in chief a
Saint James sword-cross purple between a cogwheel
vert dexter and a bunch of grapes sinister leaved of the same and fruited of
the former.
Mural crown argent with five visible towers (city
rank) and white scroll reading in black upper case letters "CIDADE
DO BARREIRO".
António Martins, 12 Sep 2003
"Barreiro" means means "claypit", but there is no clay on the coat
of arms. The ship stands for itself, the rope knot reinforces the seamanship
connection, the cross alludes to the Saint James
Order, who was donated the municipal territory after its conquer in the
1240ies, and the cogwheel and grapes have the evident meanings.
António Martins, 12 Sep 2003
brr.gif)
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
The previous flag of Barreiro, before the upgrade from
town to city
status, differs in number of visible
towers (four instead of five) and the background partition (quartered instead
of gyronny). This is to be expected — but there was also a change in
the armorial bearings, which is not usual, let alone required, especially
because these changes cannot be considered as simple corrections:
The previous coat of arms was argent on a counterchief of four wavy
fesses azure a Tagus estuary traditional fishing ship muleta dressed
gules below a Saint James sword-cross purple
between two bunches of grapes leaved vert and fruited or. Obviuously
the changes were in the general direction of the cluttered token-based
heraldry so common in portuguse subnational coats of
arms.
António Martins, 12 Sep 2003
Anything below this line was not added by the editor of this page.
