Eight purple and yellow triangles with five loaves of sugar and bunches of grapes: the flag of Funchal, capital of Madeira, is from March 1936.
Every fact about the flag, each with what it means.
Normal flagFIAV symbol: the form of the flag.
CivilFIAV symbol: who may fly the flag.The flag in the words of vexillology and heraldry.
It is a rectangular field with a 2:3 ratio divided into eight gironnies that alternate yellow and purple. The coat of arms of the city occupies the centre and can be seen whole.
Each element and how many of the 1,390 flags in the catalogue carry it. In yellow, the rarest.
Every date in its story, at a glance.
They followed the changes of the national flag, that of Portugal: blue and white from 1830, green…
The town council approved the flag and the coat of arms on 6 February 1936
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The flag of Funchal has eight triangles, four purple and four yellow, with the coat of arms of the city in the centre. On the coat of arms there are five sugar loaves and four bunches of grapes, the two crops that enriched Madeira. Funchal is the capital of the island, and its flag is different from that of the whole region, the flag of Madeira.
The town council approved the flag and the coat of arms on 6 February 1936. They were fixed by a portaria, an order of the ministry, number 839, of 24 March 1936, published in the Diário do Governo, the official bulletin now called Diário da República. It was raised for the first time at the town hall on 28 May 1936.
Funchal keeps flags from before 1936 in its town hall. They followed the changes of the national flag, that of Portugal: blue and white from 1830, green and red from 1910.
1817
The oldest image is a portrait of the archduchess Maria Leopoldina. In the background there is a long white flag with a green oval bearing the five sugar loaves in a cross.
Around 1846-1852
After Portugal adopted its blue and white flag in 1830, many municipalities copied it in a square format, with the local coat of arms on one side. Funchal keeps one of that kind.
1910
With the green and red national flag of the republic, Funchal used a green and red bicolour with the coat of arms and a mural crown.
1919-1936
A white flag with the crowned coat of arms and a red and green scroll with the motto «A nobre e leal cidade do Funchal».
1936
Gyronny purple and yellow flag. The loaves change from silver to gold, the grapes are added and the honorific motto disappears.
Purple and yellow
the eight triangles, with golden and purple cords, mark it as a city.
Green coat of arms
it bears five sugar loaves, golden and with purple twists, set in a cross.
Four bunches of grapes
each one carries the quinas of Portugal.
Scroll
«Cidade do Funchal».
The figures on the coat of arms look like beehives, but they are sugar loaves, the cones of freshly crystallised sugar that made the island rich.
In 1936 the honorific motto was removed. In 1986 the town council decided to recover it and that has partly been done, although the law did not give it the power to change the design on its own.
Test what you have read about the flag of Funchal.
Sources consulted:
Flag image: Coat of arms: Sérgio HortaSVG: Hurfer (talk · contribs), Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0.
