Barreiro Municipality (Portugal)

Concelho de Barreiro, Distrito de Setúbal

Last modified: 2014-11-08 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: barreiro | boat | grapes | cross(saint james;purple) | rope | cogwheel |
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• About the Flag
• Previous Flags (1940-1986)
• Versions without Coat of Arms
• Presentation of Barreiro

• Barreiro Communes
• Portugal

• Municipal website
  reported by Dov Gutterman, 14 Jul 1999
• Page about Barreiro 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 fairly typical Portuguese municipal flag, with the coat of arms centred on a field gyronny (meaning city rank) of red and black.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 12 Sep 2003

The coat of arms is Argent on a base of two wavy fesses Azure a Tagus estuary traditional fishing ship muleta rigged Gules below a rope knot per fess and throughout, in chief a Saint James sword-cross Purpure between a cogwheel Vert dexter and a bunch of grapes sinister leaved of the same and fruited of the former. Mural crown Argent with five visible towers (city rank) and white scroll reading in black upper case letters "CIDADE DO BARREIRO".
Meaning:
"Barreiro" means means "claypit", but there is no clay on the coat of arms. The ship stands for itself, the rope knot reinforces the seamanship connection, the cross alludes to the Saint James Order, to which the municipal territory was donated after its conquest in the 1240ies, and the cogwheel and grapes have the evident meanings.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 12 Sep 2003

Previous Flags (1940-1986)

The previous flag of Barreiro, before the upgrade from town to city status, differs in number of visible towers (four instead of five) and the field partition (quartered instead of gyronny). This is to be expected — but there was also a change in the armorial bearings, which is not usual, let alone required, especially because these changes cannot be considered as simple corrections.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 12 Sep 2003

The previous coat of arms was Argent on a counterchief of four wavy fesses Azure a Tagus estuary traditional fishing ship muleta rigged Gules below a Saint James sword-cross Purpure between two bunches of grapes leaved Vert and fruited Or. Obviouusly the changes were in the general direction of the cluttered token-based heraldry so common in Portuguese subnational coats of arms. The grapes are purple according to Sérgio Horta.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 12 Sep 2003

According toSérgio Horta Barreiro gained the rank of a city and became seat of a municipality on 16 May 1984. Flag and arms were adopted and published in Diário da República: III Série on 16 May 1986.
Former flag and arms were adopted and published in Diário do Governo : I Série on 24 April 1940.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 31 Oct 2014

Versions without Coat of Arms

Plain Flag sionce 1986

Plain Flag 1940 - 1986

Presentation of Barreiro

Barreiro had 78 764 inhabitants in 2011 and covers 36,39 km². It consists of four communes and is part of of the Setúbal District
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 31 Oct 2014

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