Almada Municipality (Portugal)

Last modified: 2001-08-16 by antonio martins
Keywords: almada | coat of arms | castle (golden) | cross: santiago (red) | quinas: 16 bezants | wave |
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The flag is a gyronny of light blue over yellow with arms in the centre. The arms has a 5-towered mural crown, a typical scroll reading "CIDADE DE ALMADA" and a blue shield, charged by a yellow castle over a black hill and three wavy lines silver-blue-silver. The castle has three towers, the central one is charged with a Santiago cross, and the lateral towers are charged with old portuguese "quinas", each with 16 bezants in a pattern of 4-3-4-3-2.
Jorge Candeias, 07 Jun 1998

As for the symbolism, the river is quite obvious and the cross refers to the first portuguese sttlers of this region, the Santiago Order. Castles are probabbly the most often motive on portuguese municipal arms — there was a castle in Almada, but there’s nothing left of it for centuries. (There are other more recent fortresses in the municipality, but I dont think the coa refers to them.) As for the rest, well, Old Almada is up on a small hill (but it is not at all black, but rather yellowish); and the quinas are also a common motive, usually atibuted to municipalities (or communes) with some regal background.
António Martins, 16 Jun 1998

Almada is a city located in front of Lisbon, across the Tejo estuary. It is a typical dormitory-city, largely populated by people that work in Lisbon. It’s economy is, therefore, very dependent of Lisbon, and is largely made up of services, though there are in the municipality some industries and touristic resources. The municipality belongs to the district of Setúbal, old province of Estremadura and possibly will belong to the region of Lisboa-e-Setúbal. It’s a small municipality (70 sq. km.), but heavily populated (over 152 000 inhabitants in 11 communes) and has coast both in the estuary and in the ocean. Here, there is a small protected natural area.
Jorge Candeias, 07 Jun 1998