Vila Franca de Xira Municipality (Portugal)

Last modified: 2005-08-26 by antonio martins
Keywords: vila franca de xira | coat of arms | fleur-de-lis (yellow) | tower (white) | scroll |
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• About the flag
• Presentation of Vila Franca de Xira
• Commune flags

• Municipalities of Portugal
• Portugal

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

About the flag

It is a quite typical portuguese municipal flag, with the coat of arms centered on a background gyronny (meaning city rank) of red and white. The coat of arms is gules, between two fleurs de lis or, a tower argent masoned sable and open of the same metal. Mural crown argent with five visible towers (city rank) and white triply folded scroll reading in black upper case letters "NOTÁVEL | VILA FRANCA DE XIRA | CIDADE".
António Martins, 08 Aug 1999

The scroll is remarkable on several aspects:

1. First, this is one of those cases when a portuguese toponym really includes the wording "Vila de" ("town of"), which was kept when it was upgraded to city status; "Xira" by itself is not the place name (although it was proposed).
2. Secondly, also not an unique case, it had recieved the honour epithet of "notável" ("noteworthy"), for civil acts of bravery. Other towns recieved it (Castelo de Vide, Constância, Nisa and Serpa) and two of them were meanwhile upgraded to city status (Moura and Vila Franca de Xira). The motto couldn’t be changed to "Notável cidade de" and Moura simply added "cidade" to the scroll (in a second line). Vila Franca de Xira (who could not lose the "Vila de" for both refered reasons) adopted instead a different shaped scroll, with three folds, reading as noted above.

António Martins, 08 Aug 1999

Presentation of Vila Franca de Xira

Vila Franca de Xira municipality had 106 880 inhabitants in 1990, and it is divided in 11 communes, covering 294 km². It belongs to the Lisboa District and to the old province of Ribatejo.
António Martins, 08 Aug 1999

Commune flags

Alverca do Ribatejo Commune

It is a quite typical portuguese communal flag, with the coat of arms centered on a background gyronny (city rank) of red and blue. The coat of arms is argent, awavy bend of the same fimbriated azure between two crescents gules pointing upwards. Mural crown argent with five visible towers (city rank) and white scroll reading in black upper case letters «CIDADE DE ALVERCA DO RIBATEJO».
António Martins, 16 Jun 2002

Presentation

Alverca do Ribatejo commune belongs to the Vila Franca de Xira municipality, to the Lisbon District and to the old province Ribatejo.
António Martins, 16 Jun 2002