Last modified: 2020-01-30 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: covilha | coat of arms: star | star: six points (white) | waves: 2 | water mill wheel |
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It is a quite typical portuguese municipal flag, with the coat of arms centred on a field gyronny (meaning city rank) of red and white.
Coat of arms
![[Covilhã municipality CoA]](../images/p/pt-cvl).gif)
image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 23 Aug 2014
The coat of arms is azure between two wavy fesses argent on a mullet of the same a water mill wheel gules. Mural crown argent with five visible towers (city rank); collar of the Order of Tower and Sword; white scroll reading in black upper case letters "CIDADE DA COVILHÃ". Some sources show purple instead of red — confirmation should be sought in the relevant law.
Meaning:
The water mill wheel refers to the early river power textiles industrialization of this region in the middle 18th century. The star stands perhaps to the nearby towering Star Massif (Serra da Estrela) — other of the nine neighbouring municipal arms show also stars (Gouveia, Manteigas, Celorico da Beira and Seia), while others do not (Fornos de Algodres, Belmonte, Guarda and Oliveira do Hospital); it should be determined both by consulting the heraldic notes published when the arms were adopted (usually not part of the law) and by comparing the statistical occurence of stars in portuguese municipal arms here and elsewhere.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 12 Sep 2003
![[Covilhã municipality plain]](../images/p/pt-cvl0.gif)
2:3 image by António Martins-Tuválkin, Apr 2010
Covilhã municipality had had 54 507 inhabitants in 2000 (52 830 in 1990), and it is divided in 21 communes, covering 97 km2. It belongs to the Castelo Branco District, to the old province of Beira Baixa and to the would-be region of Beira Interior.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 12 Sep 2003
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