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Flag of Braga

Blue and white, with Our Lady of Braga and the cathedral towers in the centre: the flag of Braga has been official since 1989.

Flag of Braga
Coat of arms
Learn to read it Test yourself

The flag, in figures

Every fact about the flag, each with what it means.

Proportions
2:33 wide for every 2 high. 989 flags in the catalogue share it.
Properties
Normal flagFIAV symbol: the form of the flag.
Use
CivilFIAV symbol: who may fly the flag.
Adopted
198923 March 1989 · 37 years ago
Colours
  • blue
  • white
  • purple
Reference shades: the official one may vary slightly.
Coat of arms
YesIt carries the coat of arms on the cloth.
123

Take a closer look

  1. The eight gores

  2. 1

    The coat of arms

  3. 2

    The mural crown

  4. 3

    The scroll

How it is described

The flag in the words of vexillology and heraldry.

Vexillological description

It is a rectangular field —the cloth of the flag —with a 2:3 ratio, cut into eight gironnies that alternate blue and white, with the coat of arms of the city in the centre.

Field
eight gironnies (triangular wedges that come out of the centre), four blue and four white.
Coat of arms
in the centre; it shows Our Lady of Braga with two towers at the sides and three small shields above.
Stripes
there are none; a stripe is a band of colour, and here the colours only change in the gironnies.

What it carries

Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.

Its history in dates

Every date in its story, at a glance.

  1. 1830

    Blue and white, like the flag of the Azores and the Portuguese one of 1830 to 1910

  2. 1860

    Heraldry of the World shows drawings from 1860 and 1862

  3. 1930

    Since 1930, Portuguese rules require city flags to be cut into eight gironnies in the main colours…

  4. 1989

    It is one of the few Portuguese city flags with a religious figure as its protagonist,…

The full story

How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.

The flag of Braga is blue and white, in eight gironnies, and carries in the centre the coat of arms with the Virgin Mary. It is one of the few Portuguese city flags with a religious figure as its protagonist, and one of the most recent: it is from 1989.

How it came about

The coat of arms and the flag were approved and published in the Diário da República (III Série) on 23 March 1989. The city already had an ancient coat of arms. Heraldry of the World shows drawings from 1860 and 1862, and variants from the seventies on matchbox labels and on municipal covers.

Since 1930, Portuguese rules require city flags to be cut into eight gironnies in the main colours of the coat of arms, just like that of Lisbon. Here they are the blue of the Virgin’s mantle and the silver of her crown and of the towers.

How it has changed

There is no record of a Braga flag before 1989. What did change was the coat of arms, drawn in several ways until the current one was fixed.

  1. 1860-1970

    Old versions of the coat of arms, from 1860, 1862 and the seventies. The flag that accompanied them is not known.

  2. Current banner of Braga: blue and white gironnies with the coat of arms of the Virgin
    Sérgio Horta · CC BY-SA 3.0

    1989

    Current official coat of arms and flag. Blue and white, like the flag of the Azores and the Portuguese one of 1830 to 1910, but here for another reason: they are the colours of the Virgin.

What it means

  • Blue and white

    the sky-blue mantle of the Virgin and the silver of her crown and of the towers.

  • Our Lady of Braga

    with a purple tunic, sky-blue mantle, mural crown, a lily in her right hand and the Infant Jesus on her left arm.

  • Two silver towers

    the cathedral, dedicated to Santa Maria of Braga.

  • Three small shields

    the quinas of Portugal, at the top.

Fun facts

  1. A 900-year-old cathedral inside the coat of arms

    The two towers represent the cathedral of Braga, which according to Flags of the World is about 900 years old.

  2. The same colours as the Azores, for another reason

    The blue and white of Braga come from the mantle of the Virgin. Those of the Azores come from the liberal Portuguese flag of 1830.

Location

How much have you learnt?

Test what you have read about the flag of Braga.

  1. 1. Which one is the flag of Braga?

  2. 2. Which of these elements appears on the flag?

  3. 3. What are the proportions (height:width) of the flag?

  4. 4. In which year was the current flag adopted?

Sources

Sources consulted:

Credits

Flag image: Sérgio Horta, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0.

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