Eight red and yellow triangles with a castle, a bugler and an apple tree in the arms: the flag of Viseu was published on 13 June 1940.
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 red and yellow gores (triangles that all start at the centre), alternating, with the city arms in the centre.
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.
Ancient arms, divided into two halves like many before 1931: on one side the arms of Portugal…
The flag and arms of Viseu were published on 13 June 1940 in the Diário do Governo
How it was born, how it has changed and what it means.
The flag of Viseu has eight triangles, four red and four yellow, with the city arms in the centre. The arms show a red castle with a bugler on one tower and an apple tree on the other. Viseu is the capital of the district of the same name, in inland Portugal.
Portugal regulated the symbols of its municipalities with a common system: a flag with arms in the centre and a ground that indicates the category. The flag and arms of Viseu were published on 13 June 1940 in the Diário do Governo, the official gazette now called the Diário da República. The cord and tassels are golden and red.
The 1940 flag is the first known and has not changed. Before it, what existed was a different coat of arms.
Before 1940
Ancient arms, divided into two halves like many before 1931: on one side the arms of Portugal and on the other those of Viseu, with a red star above and a scroll reading “Antiqua et nobilissima”, “the ancient and most noble”. It was not yet a flag.
1940
The red and yellow gored flag is published, with the current arms, which remain in force.
Red and yellow
the eight triangles indicate that Viseu is a city. They are the colours of the first flag of Angra do Heroísmo, of 1940.
Red castle
the castle of the city, with golden door and windows.
Bugler
a man dressed in black blowing a golden horn on a tower.
Apple tree
a green tree with golden apples, on the other tower.
Mural crown of five towers
the sign of a city.
White scroll
“Cidade de Viseu”.
According to legend, King Ramiro II of León entered a castle to recover his wife. Sentenced to die, he asked to blow his horn one last time: it was the signal for his soldiers, who had left Viseu, to attack the castle.
Flags of the World has found no explanation for the apple tree on the arms.
Test what you have read about the flag of Viseu.
Sources consulted:
Flag image: Autor desconocido, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0.
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