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Ilhéus, Bahia (Brazil)

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 19 November 2007

About the Flag

About the Flag of Ilhéus

Ilhéus is a municipality in southern coastal Bahia state (Sul Baiano mesoregion, Ilhéus-Itabuna microregion), Brazil, with 220 932 inhabitants (est. 2006) in 1840.99 km². The eponymous municipal city is well known for being the setting of Jorge Amado’s novel Gabriela Cravo e Canela and was once the world's leading cocoa export center. "Ilhéus" means "islets" (or "islanders") See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilh%C3%A9us (in English) and http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilh%C3%A9us (in Portuguese).

The flag can be seen at http://www.ilheense.com.br/bandeira.htm and at http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%ADmbolos_de_Ilh%C3%A9us#Bandeira . It is a 2:3 red flag with three horizontal yellow stripes covering the bottom half (intervals as wide as each stripe) and five green fig leaves set in saltire on the upper hoist. This flag design was based on the city coat of arms, itself based on the arms of Jorge de Figueiredo Correia, the Portuguese nobleman who received the first captainship of the area in 1534. These were per pale Gules five fig leaves Vert and Gules fretty Or (marshaled family arms of Figueiredo and Correia); the city coat of arms keeps this blazon with additional crest and supporters.

The flag was designed by local teacher Leopoldo Campos Monteiro and approved by law nº872 of 1965.05.07, which also adopted red and green as the official colors of the municipality. The detailed description given by the law calls for the leaves to have a "golden shadow" (fimbriation?), surely due to heraldic concerns: The image at local unofficial website "Ilheense" lacks this shadowing while the Portuguese Wikipedia image includes it.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 19 November 2007