Amadora Municipality (Portugal)

Last modified: 2006-09-30 by antónio martins
Keywords: amadora | coat of arms: bridge | arches: 3 | windsock | propeller | bush | pomegranate |
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• About the flag
• Version without the coat of arms
• Presentation of Amadora

• Municipalities of Portugal
• Portugal

• Page about the municipal flag and coat of arms of Amadora at Sérgio Horta’s website (in Portuguese).
  reported by Jorge Candeias, 29 Feb 1999
• Page about Amadora at the Portuguese Municipalities’s Association website (incl. image of the arms)
  reported by António Martins, 18 Nov 2001

About the flag

It’s flag is a typical gyronny of green over white with one of the ugliest coats of amrs in portuguese municipal heraldry, in my humble opinion. It includes a 5-towered mural crown (with an unusual shape; all my sources present it this way, so I guess it’s the way it is used), and a scroll (also unusual) that reads "CIDADE DA AMADORA". The shield is green, has in chef a yellowish airplane propeller and a silver windsock, then an aqueduct and below a pomegranate tree also in that yellowish colour of the propeller, with fruits with something red within
Jorge Candeias, 25 Jul 1998

At the present time Amadora does not have any airfield. However, in the 1920s a small airfield (the 1st in Portugal) was located here. The first air-travel from Portugal to Brazil had is departure from Amadora. The Captain of the airplane was Adm. Gago Coutinho, a well knowned Portuguese celebrity. This justifies the airplane propeller and a silver windsock on the Amadora’s flag.
Jorge Fernandes, 15 Apr 2003

The arches represent the famous Free Waters Aqueduct (Aqueduto das Águas Livres), which brings water from Sintra hills to Lisbon, streching some 30 km through these three municipalities. It was finished in the 1770ies and includes the largest masonry only arch ever built, located in the Campolide commune — local coat of arms also displays the aqueduct (like others along its way).
António Martins, 20 Sep 1998

The tree is a pomegranate tree, one of the Amadora symbols. The explanation is somewhat awkward, and hard to explain in English, but it follows:

• "Pomegranate" = "Romã" in Portuguese.
• "Romã", read backwards is "amor" ("love" in Portuguese).
• "Amadora" is "she-lover", the female that loves ("amadora" is a female noun. In Portuguese, a city usually is a female noun).

Miguel dos Reis, 24 Sep 2001

Version without the coat of arms

Green and white gyronny.
Jorge Candeias, 14 Jul 1999

Presentation of Amadora

Amadora is a dormitory city of Lisbon, one of the smallest portuguese municipalities (24 km²), and one of the most populated (187 000 inh.; 175 534 in 2000, cesus data) divided in 8 communes. It is placed to the northwest of Lisbon, in its district and in the old province of Estremadura, future Lisboa-e-Setúbal region.
Jorge Candeias, 25 Jul 1998

The former commune was dettached from the Oeiras municipality on 11 September 1979. At once was created the municipality of Amadora and the town was promoted to the rank of city.
Francisco Santos, 16 Apr 2003

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