Last modified: 2006-02-05 by antonio martins
Keywords: lisbon | lisboa | coat of arms (ship) | sail ship: 1 mast | crow | cormorant | raven | waves: 7 | saint vincent | fragoso (margarida) | lx |
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The municipal flag of Lisbon is a gironny of 8, black and white with
or without the coat of arms in the middle. Proportions 1:1 or 2:3.
Pascal Vagnat, 14 Dec 1997
The flag is gyronny of eight, black over white; in the center, the
coat of arms. These are: or, on a see of seven wavy fesses vert and
argent, a sail ship sable, with rudder, one mast and respective ropes,
all lined argent; flag and sails (furled in five “pockets”) of the same;
at both ends of the ship, two ravens sable lined argent, each pointing
to the center of the shield. Mural crown or with five apparent
towers (capital city rank), collar of the
Order of Tower and Sword, and white scroll
with the motto "MUI NOBRE E SEMPRE LEAL CIDADE DE LISBOA"
(most noble and always loyal city of Lisbon) in black upper case letters.
António Martins, 07 Mar 1999
The story behind this coat of arms relates to Saint Vincent, patron of
the city (unlike Saint Anthony of Lisbon and Padova, who “just” born here).
According to a legend this saint’s (uncorrupt) corpse was brought to Algarve,
southern Portugal, and was later carried to Lisbon by ship, from the
appropriately called St. Vincent Cape (the SW tip of Portugal, in
Vila do Bispo municipality); here two ravens
perched on the ship and kept guard to the holy corpse untill the arrival.
These are usually said to have been “sea crows”
(cormorants) instead,but they could also be P. pyrrocorax
(“Red beaked crow”, in portuguese), since they are
the same family as ravens. The legend says raven, anyway, and it became the
Lisbon’s mascot — where ravens and other kinds of crows are
almost absent, by the way — all you can see is millions of pigeons and
sparrows.
António Martins, 07 Mar 1999
I have just returned from a vacation that was spent partly in Lisbon.
Along with the Portuguese flag, the municipal flag
of Lisbon was commonly seen, about half the time with very complex arms in
the centre. These municipal flags were more usually flown from stand-alone
poles at street corners than from buildings.
Vincent Morley, 09 Oct 1999
The “civil” municipal flag of Lisbon is white over black gyronny,
with no coat of arms.
António Martins, 15 Apr 1998
The Lisbon City Museum (Palácio Pimenta, Campo Grande) hoists
every day an upside down flag for ages!
António Martins, 15 Jul 1999
Lisbon is one of the municipalities of the Lisbon
district (old province of Estremadura), covering
84 km2 in 53 communes where live 629 670 inhabitants
(1992 data).
António Martins, 15 Apr 1998
The new logo replaced the old one in early 2001,
following a change in the ruling party.
António Martins, 24 Aug 2003
The adoption of this logo was preceeded and prepared by the
publishing of the book O emblema da cidade de Lisboa
[frg02]; the new logo was created
by the book author, Margarida Fragoso.
António Martins, 26 Aug 2003
The logo (and, in consequence, the flag based on it) was replaced in
early 2001, following a change in the ruling party.
António Martins, 24 Aug 2003
Ginásio Clube Português is a Lisbon sports club, and it flies
this flag in its headquarters (between Rato and Amoreiras) every sunday
along with the national and UE
flags (sometimes they had all three poles with club flags, I guess
it was when they’re helding competitions or something).
The flag consists of the logo of the club (approx. 1/2
of the height) on a white background with the portuguese national flag in a
small canton (approx. 1/3rd ×
1/3rd). Adolf Duran shows this flag on his article
[drn92] but with a wrongly simplified
logo.
António Martins, 23 Jul 1999
