Last modified: 2010-12-03 by antónio martins
Keywords: lisbon | lisboa | coat of arms (ship) | sail ship: 1 mast | flag (wait) | crow | cormorant | raven | waves: 7 | saint vincent | fragoso (margarida) | lx | squares: 5 | squares: 2+1+2 | campolide | sé |
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The municipal flag of Lisbon is a gironny of 8, black and white with
or without the coat of arms in the middle. Proportions 1:1 or 2:3.
Pascal Vagnat, 14 Dec 1997
The flag is gyronny of eight, black over white; in the center, the
coat of arms. These are: or, on a see of seven wavy fesses vert and
argent, a sail ship sable, with rudder, one mast and respective ropes,
all lined argent; flag and sails (furled in five “pockets”) of the
same; at both ends of the ship, two ravens sable lined argent, each pointing
to the center of the shield. Mural crown or with five apparent
towers (capital city rank), collar of the
Order of Tower and Sword, and white scroll
with the motto "MUI NOBRE E SEMPRE LEAL CIDADE DE LISBOA"
(most noble and always loyal city of Lisbon) in black upper case letters.
António Martins, 07 Mar 1999
The story behind this coat of arms relates to Saint Vincent, patron of
the city (unlike Saint Anthony of Lisbon and Padova, who “just” born here).
According to a legend this saint’s (uncorrupt) corpse was brought to Algarve,
southern Portugal, and was later carried to Lisbon by ship, from the
appropriately called St. Vincent Cape (the SW tip of Portugal, in
Vila do Bispo municipality); here two ravens
perched on the ship and kept guard to the holy corpse untill the arrival.
These are usually said to have been “sea crows”
(cormorants) instead,but they could also be P. pyrrocorax
(“Red beaked crow”, in portuguese), since they are
the same family as ravens. The legend says raven, anyway, and it became the
Lisbon’s mascot — where ravens and other kinds of crows are
almost absent, by the way — all you can see is millions of pigeons and
sparrows.
António Martins, 07 Mar 1999
I have just returned from a vacation that was spent partly in Lisbon.
Along with the Portuguese flag, the municipal flag
of Lisbon was commonly seen, about half the time with very complex arms in
the centre. These municipal flags were more usually flown from stand-alone
poles at street corners than from buildings.
Vincent Morley, 09 Oct 1999
The “civil” municipal flag of Lisbon is white over black
gyronny, with no coat of arms.
António Martins, 15 Apr 1998
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
The Lisbon City Museum (Palácio Pimenta, Campo Grande) hoists
every day an upside down flag for ages!
António Martins, 15 Jul 1999
I do not know the official explanation, but I bet the the 5 colors refer
to diversity or any other such trendy buzzword. The basic design stands for
"LX", the usual abbreviation of the name "Lisbon" ("Lisboa", in
Portuguese), from "Lixabuna", one of the many way to spell it in
pre-orthographic Portuguese (the name comes from Roman Latin "Olisipo",
itself assimilated from previous forms, later reshaped inder Germanic, Arabic,
and Romance influences).
António Martins, 06 Oct 2004
The "LX" logo was modified in 2004 in this
period — "câmara municipal" being dropped, and a
stylized coat of arms added. Later, this change
affected flags, too.
António Martins, 2010
This is now the Lisbon municipality logo flag in use, having slowly
replaced all previous "LX" logo flag, with and without
smaller letters "câmara municipal" below.
António Martins, 22 Apr 2007
Recent news reported that the Lisbon Mayor under whom the current logo was
approved (Pedro Santana Lopes), want now the crows and ship back on the logo.
It is not clear wheather this will be done by modifying the
current logo, reverting to the previous (unlikely)
or to any of the earlier logos, or creating yet a new logo. However this mayor
has been recently “transformed” in Prime Minister, so the issue
may be moot.
António Martins, 18 Jul 2004
Shortly after former Lisbon mayor Santana Lopes become prime minister last
June, his interim replacement, Carmona Rodrigues (not from the same party,
PSD, but from PP —
both had won the Lisbon municipal government in coalition) approved the use
of yet a new logo for the Lisbon Municipality, this time a more or less sober
stylization of the coat of arms. This started to appear in September 2004,
and is now used along the still current logo. I took a photo of this early
usage, see here.
António Martins, 04 Oct 2004
As a flag this is still a design with no actual usage: indeed
the stylized coat of arms is never used standalone (though it was surely
designed to be), but always along with the "LX" logo
and the city name.
António Martins, 22 Apr 2007
The new logo replaced the old one in early 2001,
following a change in the ruling party.
António Martins, 24 Aug 2003
The adoption of this logo was preceeded and prepared by the
publishing of the book O emblema da cidade de Lisboa
[frg02]; the new logo was created
by the book author, Margarida Fragoso.
António Martins, 26 Aug 2003
The lettering is set in Chalet typeface.
António Martins, 22 Apr 2007
The logo (and, in consequence, the flag based on it) was replaced in
early 2001, following a change in the ruling party.
António Martins, 24 Aug 2003
Lisbon is one of the municipalities of the Lisbon
district (old province of Estremadura), covering
84 km² in 53 communes where live 629 670
inhabitants (1992 data).
António Martins, 15 Apr 1998
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, was finished in the 1770ies and includes the largest
masonry only arch ever built: This is located in the Campolide commune —
local coat of arms displays the aqueduct (like others along its way).
António Martins, 20 Sep 1998
Ginásio Clube Português is a Lisbon sports club, and it
flies this flag in its headquarters (between Rato and Amoreiras) every sunday
along with the national and UE
flags (sometimes they had all three poles with club flags, I guess
it was when they’re helding competitions or something).
The flag consists of the logo of the club (approx. ½ of the height) on
a white background with the portuguese national flag in a small canton
(approx. ⅓rd × ⅓rd). Adolf Duran shows this flag on his
article [drn92] but with a wrongly
simplified logo.
António Martins, 23 Jul 1999
Anything below this line was not added by the editor of this page.
