Monchique Municipality (Portugal)

Last modified: 2001-08-16 by antonio martins
Keywords: monchique | coat of arms | head: moor | head: king | fountain | mons cicus |
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• Presentation of Monchique

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It is a fairily atypical portuguese municipal flag, with the coat of arms centered on a plain white background. The arms are vert, a fountain argent playing of the same, acompained in chief by a christian king’s head proper, dexter, and a moorish king’s head proper, sinister. Mural crown argent with four visible towers (town rank), ornamented on its base with the inscription "MONS CICVS", and red scroll reading in white upper case letters "VILA DE MONCHIQUE".

The inscription "MONS CICVS" (hill something) is the roman name of the town, whose corruption thru late latin, visigothic, mozarabic and andalusian arabic delivered the current name.

The unusual features on this flag are the color of the scroll and the inscripion on the base of the crown. The white background is not as uncommon as it is often said — there are four or five of them in portuguese municipal flags.

António Martins, 25 Feb 2000

Plain (monocolored) portuguese subnational flags are not allowed to have armless variations: plain flags always carry the coat of arms.
Jorge Candeias, 18 Jul 1999

Monchique municipality had 6840 inhabitants in 1990, and it is divided in 3 communes, covering 395 km². It belongs to the Faro District and to the old province of Algarve.
António Martins, 25 Feb 2000