Last modified: 2006-02-05 by antonio martins
Keywords: moura | coat of arms | tower (balck) | woman | mooress | legend | canting |
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It is a quite typical portuguese municipal flag, with the coat of arms
centered on a background gyronny (city rank)
of black and yellow. The coat of arms is argent, a tower sable with windows
and door or issuant from a base vert on which lyes the corps of a muslim
young lady argent. Mural crown argent with five visible towers
(city rank) and white scroll reading in black
upper case letters "NOTÁVEL VILA DE MOURA" (upper line)
and "CIDADE" (lower line).
António Martins, 24 Feb 2000
This coat of arms depict the final scene from a local legend, which tells about
a moorish princess who throw herself from the tower where she was imprisoned.
The toponym also refers to this legend, "moura" meaning "moorish woman"
("mooress"?).
António Martins, 24 Feb 2000
The weird text on the scroll, "Noteworthy town of Moura / City", has a
story, also: when Moura recieved the title "noteworthy" (I dont know why),
it was a town. When, much later (in the 1980ies, I guess), it become a
city, it was not possible to change the wording of that honourable
mention, and so the word "city" was dully added. A similar case is
Vila Franca de Xira, but this adopted a more elegant
solution, with a folded, longer scroll and text in one line.
António Martins, 24 Feb 2000
Moura municipality had 17 090 inhabitants in 1990, and it is divided in 8
communes, covering 958 km2. It belongs to the Beja
District and to the old province of Baixo Alentejo.
António Martins, 24 Feb 2000
