Semide e Rio Vide United Commune (Portugal)

União das Freguesias de Semide e Rio Vide, Concelho de Miranda do Corvo, Distrito de Coimbra

Last modified: 2026-02-28 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: rio vide | semide | olive(branch) | tree | pale(wavy) | grape(bunch) | cherry(twig) |
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• Semide e Rio Vide United Commune
• Flag
• Coat of Arms
• Presentation of Semide e Rio Vide
• Former Semide Commune (until 2013)
• Flag
• Flag Proposal
• Coat of Arms
• Presentation of Semide
• Town Flag
• Town Coat of Arms
• Former Rio Vide Commune (until 2013)
• Flag
• Coat of Arms
• Presentation of Rio Vide

• Miranda do Corvo Municipality
• Portugal
• Portuguese WIKIPEDIA

Semide e Rio Vide United Commune

Flag

It is a typical Portuguese communal flag, with the coat of arms centred on a field quartered of red and yellow.
Source: Sérgio Horta´s webpage
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 11 May 2015

Coat of Arms

Shield Or, a fess wavy divided into five alternating barrulets of Azure and Argent between three trees eradicated Vert ordered per fess in chief and two branches of olive tree Vert fructed Sable, tied Gules and crossed per saltire in base. Mural crown Argent with four visible towers (town rank) and white scroll with inscription in black initials: "UNIÃO DAS FREGUESUAS DE SEMIDE E RIO VIDE".
Meaning:
The fess wavy is representing the local riches of water, especially in Semide the Ribeira of Arouca and little river Ceira, and in Rio Vide the little rivers Vide, Torto and Corvo. The trees are taken from the arms of Semide. They are representing the floral zone of Semide and the economic importance of wood processing. The olive branches are taken from the arms of Rio Vide and are representing the importance of agriculture in present and past.
Source: Sérgio Horta´s webpage
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 11 May 2015

Published in Diário da República: II Série on 16 October 2014
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 11 May 2015

Presentation of Semide e Rio Vide

Semide e Rio Vide is the only commune of Miranda do Corvo Municipality created by a merger during the 2013 changes. It had 3337 inhabitants in 2021 and covers 37,3 km².
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 21 Feb 2026

Former Semide Commune (until 2013)

Flag

It is a typical Portuguese communal flag, with the coat of arms centred on a field quartered of red and yellow.
Source: Sérgio Horta´s webpage
António Martins-Tuválkin, 13 Jan 2026

Flag Proposal

It is a typical Portuguese communal flag, with the coat of arms centred on a field quartered of red and yellow.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 11 May 2015

Coat of Arms

Shield Or a heart Gules charged with a Marian crown Argent, accompanied by three trees eradicated Vert arrayed two and one, on base wavy Azure a bar wavy Argent. The proposed arms had been nearly the same, but instead of the heart and crown there had been a red detail of a façade, misinterpreted before as a tower. Mural crown Argent with four visible towers (town rank) and short white scroll, in Bénard Guedes style, reading in black upper case letters SEMIDE.
Meaning:
The façade in proposal and heart and crown in the final arms refer to the local Monastery of Santa Maria de Semide, also called Monastery of Our Lady of Assumption. In that incarnation St. Mary is also the local patron saint. The base wavy represents the local riches of water, the Ribeira of Arouca and little river Ceira. The trees represent the floral zone of Semide and the economic importance of wood processing.
António Martins-Tuválkin reported that there had been a long delay between the establishment by the Comissão de Heráldica da Associação dos Arqueólogos Portugueses (CHAAP) on 28 August 2000 and the adoption by the local council 30 June 2004,
Source: Ralf Hartemink´s webpage
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 11 May 2015 and António Martins-Tuválkin, 13 Jan 2026

Published in Diário da República: III Série on 27 May 2004
António Martins-Tuválkin, 13 Jan 2026

Presentation of Semide

Semide was one of the five pre 2013 communes of Miranda do Corvo Municipality and merged with Rio Vide in 2013. It had 2863 inhabitants in 2011 and covered 26,06 km².
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 11 May 2015

Town Flag

It is a typical Portuguese communal flag, with the coat of arms centred on a field quartered of black and yellow.
Not the flag of a commune, or of a municipality, but of a town. The law that regulates Portuguese local flags, in one of its many shortcomings, allows cities and towns, as such, to have their own arms and flag, andthis somehow got to be approved in 1991 , even though nothing in the Portuguese laws and practice gives to cities and towns as such any corporate existence — only in the extent that in most cases there is a commune or municipality (or both) that is geographically conterminous and/or shares a namesake. In those cases, the flag or the administrative unit (commune or municipality) can be seen as the flag of the settlement (city or town), in an imprecise way.
Source: Sérgio Horta´s webpage
António Martins-Tuválkin, 12 Jan 2026

Town Coat of Arms

Shield Or two olive branches Vert fructed Sable in saltire, accompanied in chief by a heart Gules charged with a Marian crown Argent, at the dexter flanch by a cross patty Gules charged with a crosslet couped Argent, at sinister flanch by a cross-sword Gules, on a base wavy Azure a bar wavy Argent. Mural crown Argent with three visible towers (village rank) and white scroll reading in black upper case letters VILA DE SEMIDE.
Meaning:
The cross at dexter is that one of the Order of the Knights of Christ, at sinister that one of the Order of St. James.
The over all chromatism and the crown-on-heart motive were taken from the communal flag to create, 25 years later, the Semide town flag.
Semide town is located in municipality Miranda do Corvo, which has its seat (=capital) nominally in town Miranda do Corvo. Semide is located at the northern part of the municipal territory (not far away from Coimbra, to its southeast), the built-up area stradling the border between former communes Rio de Vide and Semide itself (_i.e._, the nominal commune). These two were amalgammated into a single commune, named Semide e Rio Vide, in 2013, with Semide town now located smack in the middle of the novel administratve unit.
So, why would Semide town as such need a flag, when both the pre-2012 namesake commune and the current primary nominal commune had/have their own flags? I have no idea, but in 2025 (long after the new commune was created and given its own flag and arms) the CHAAP, presumably upon request, established new flag and arms for Semide town as such. This is very rare, but fully within the letter of the law (Art. 3 §1 e) [pt]).
Source: Sérgio Horta´s webpage
António Martins-Tuválkin, 12 / 13 Jan 2026

Published in Diário da República: II Série on 3 March 2025
António Martins-Tuválkin, 12 Jan 2026

Former Rio Vide Commune (until 2013)

Flag

It is a fairly typical Portuguese communal flag, with the coat of arms centred on a plain red background (village rank) .
Source: Sérgio Horta´s webpage
António Martins-Tuválkin, 14 Dec 2010

Coat of Arms

The arms are Or on a fess wavy Azure two barrulets wavy Argent and in chief a scallop Gules garnished Argent and in base two olive branches Vert fructed Sable put in saltire and tied Gules. Mural crown argent with three visible towers (village rank) and white scroll reading in black upper case letters "RIO VIDE".
Meaning:
"_Rio Vide_" means "grape vine river" in Portuguese, of which the former is shown on the arms: canting. The scallop is an attribute of St. james the Elder, the local patron saint.
Source: Sérgio Horta´s webpage
António Martins-Tuválkin, 14 Dec 2010

Published in Diário da República: III Série on 12 June 2002
António Martins-Tuválkin, 14 Dec 2010

Presentation of Rio Vide

Rio Vide was one of the five pre 2013 communes of Miranda do Corvo Municipality and merged with Semide commune in 2013. It had 813 inhabitants in 2011 and covers 11.3 km².
António Martins-Tuválkin, 14 Dec 2011

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