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Guilheiro Commune (Portugal)

Last modified: 2025-10-18 by klaus-michael schneider
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[Guilheiro commune flag w/r short scroll]
2:3, image by António Martins-Tuválkin and Sérgio Horta´, 20 June 2025
[Guilheiro commune flag r/w short scroll]
2:3, image by António Martins-Tuválkin and Sérgio Horta´, 20 June 2025
[Guilheiro commune flag r/w usual scroll]
2:3, image by António Martins-Tuválkin and Sérgio Horta´, 21 June 2025
     



Guilheiro Commune

Flag

It is a typical Portuguese communal flag with the coat of arms centred on a field quartered of white and red (see left image above) with short scroll, in Bénard Guedes style, or the same quartered of red and white (see central image above) or quartered of red and white with usual scroll (see right image above)
Source: Sérgio Horta´s webpage
António Martins-Tuválkin, 20 June 2025

Coat of Arms

[Guilheiro commune CoA w/ usual Maltese cross]
image by António Martins-Tuválkin and Sérgio Horta, 20 June 2025
[Guilheiro commune CoA w/ concaved Maltese cross]
image by António Martins-Tuválkin and Sérgio Horta, 21 June 2025
   

Shield Gules a cross calvary Argent, flanked at dexter by a Maltese cross Argent and at sinister by a chestnut twig Or fructed Vert. Mural crown Argent with three visible towers (village rank) and white scroll reading in black upper case serifed letters "GUILHEIRO".
Meaning:
The cross is a representation of the local cross with a monolithic pillar, finished in 1559. The village gained the rank of a town (Portuguese: vila) in 1521 by cgarter grante by Dona Sancha Vermuiz and her sons. The maltese cross is alluding to the Order of the Hospital of St. John, later known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. The town had been seat of a a commandery of the order, which was owne by Dom António Manuel, the brother of the 2nd Count of Vila Flor. The chestnut twigs are symbolising the cultivation of chestnuts, the most important local agricultural product and source of the local richness.
The style of the Maltese cross varies in known depictions of this coat of arms — some times with curved concave crossarm (see right image above) ends (i.e. closer to what it is internationally known as), others with angular concave crossarm ends, as usual [pt-_m.html#cross] in Portuguese local heraldry. The plinth whereon the cross is erected on is markedly assymetric in all known depictions of this coat of arms.
Sources: Ralf Hartemink´s webpage, Sérgio Horta´s webpage
António Martins-Tuválkin, 20 June 2025

Published in Diário da República: III Série on 5 July 2000,
António Martins-Tuválkin, 20 June 2025

Presentation of Guilheiro

Guilheiro is one of the 15 communes of Trancoso Municipality created by the merger during the 2013 changes. It had 126 inhabitants in 2021 and covers 13,68 km². Guilheiro is one of the few municipal-level exclaves in Portugal, being separated from the rest of Trancoso Municipality/b> by a sliver of land that is part of neighbouring Arnas in Sernacelhe Municipality.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 20 June 2025


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