Last modified: 2001-12-13 by antonio martins
Keywords: algarve | head: moor | head: king |
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The moorish and christian kings in the Algarve municipal arms (13 out of 16 municipalities) shows a little different in each different coat of arms — and often the same arms show appreciable differences in various depictions.
Algarvan heads and azorean goshawk are
the only distinctive regional charges in our municipal heraldry (plus the
star in the municipalities of the Estrela Range region, though in a much
lesser degree), having all the other charges a more local / historical
character. The reasons for this are different, I think. Although in the
Algarve what happens is that it used to be a de jure separate kingdom
under a personal union with Portugal until the 20’s of the last century,
thus having it’s own set of symbols (although no flag, as far as I know),
in my humble opinion the goshawk derives from the obvious graphical
expression of the name of the islands, since I don’t think they ever had
arms until they became autonomous in the ’70s.
Jorge Candeias, 31 Mar 1999
The traditional region Algarve has an area of
4982 km2, and a population of 343 850
inhabitants as of 1990, living in
16 municipalities. The territory coincides exactly with the
Faro District.
António Martins, 24 Jul 2001
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