Eight black and yellow triangles with the arms of the city in the centre: the flag of Portalegre was approved in 1934 and has never changed.
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.YesIt carries the coat of arms on the cloth.The flag in the words of vexillology and heraldry.
It is a rectangular field with a 2:3 ratio divided into eight gironnies: eight triangles that start at the centre and reach the edges, four black and four yellow, alternating. In the centre goes the arms of the city.
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.
Portalegre had been a city since 1550
In April 1930 a heraldic commission of the Associação dos Arqueólogos Portugueses asked the town…
The flag and arms of Portalegre were published on 11 July 1934 in the Diário do Governo
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The flag of Portalegre has eight triangles, four black and four yellow, and the arms of the city in the centre. Portalegre is the capital of the district of the same name, in the Alto Alentejo. Its flag follows the model Portugal set for its municipalities in the thirties.
In April 1930 a heraldic commission of the Associação dos Arqueólogos Portugueses asked the town councils to review their symbols. A common system came out of it: each municipality would have a flag with its coat of arms in the centre, and the design of the ground would indicate its category.
The flag and arms of Portalegre were published on 11 July 1934 in the Diário do Governo. That was the name of the Portuguese official gazette before the current Diário da República. Portalegre had been a city since 1550, when King John III raised it to that category.
There are no documented earlier versions. The sources consulted record no municipal flag before that of 1934 nor later changes: the first is also the current one.
The coat of arms bears a castle and the quinas of Portugal. The quinas are five blue escutcheons with white dots, and they also appear on the coat of arms of the flag of Portugal.
Gironnied ground
a ground divided into eight triangles that meet at the centre. In this system it is the sign that the place is a city.
Black and yellow
the rule of the thirties took one colour and one metal from the coat of arms for the ground.
Black castle
the fortress of the city, with a small representation of the quinas.
Mural crown of five towers
the five towers are also the sign of a city.
White band
it reads “Cidade de Portalegre”.
In Portuguese flags, eight triangles indicate city status. Towns carry the ground divided into four parts.
The flag appeared in the Diário do Governo, the name the official gazette bore from 1869 to 1976. Today it is called the Diário da República.
The flag of Viana do Castelo is also black and yellow, but with four quarters instead of eight triangles.
Test what you have read about the flag of Portalegre.
Sources consulted:
Flag image: Zloyel, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0.
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