Last modified: 2025-04-05 by 
klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: barcos(tabuaco) | santa leocadia(tabuaco) | dolmen | wall(masoned) |
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The commune either has not yet proper symbols or they are unknown.
Source: Sérgio Horta´s webpage
António Martins-Tuválkin, 16 Mar 2025
![[Barcos commune flag (until 2013)]](../images/p/pt-tbcbl-bc.gif)
2:3, image by António Martins-Tuválkin and Sérgio Horta, 26 Mar 2025
It is a typical Portuguese communal flag, with the coat of arms centred on a plain purple field.
Source: Sérgio Horta´s webpage
António Martins-Tuválkin, 26 Mar 2025
![[Barcos commune CoA (until 2013)]](../images/p/pt-tbcbl-bc).gif)
image by António Martins-Tuválkin andSérgio Horta, 26 Mar 2025
Shield Or an olive branch Vert fructed Sable and a grapevine branch Vert fructed Purple with their proximal stem ends crossed per saltire, base Sable masoned Argent. Mural crown Argent with three visible towers (village rank) and white scroll reading in black upper case serifed letters "BARCOS - TABUAÇO".
Meaning:
The elements composing these arms have trivial agrobotanical meanings, with the wall standing for the Sabroso castrum, an Iron Age archeological monument, see here. The problem is that this is located 75 km away to WNW, in Guimarães Municipality, not far from a commune there named Barco, while in the Barcos communal territory there is another archeological site — less important, but also named Sabroso, see here.
While the text quoted in Sérgio Horta´s webpage doesn´t caveat against this possible confusion (created, as it very likely was, by and for the local citizenry), it further conflates two local archeological sites named Sabroso — one from the Bronze and Iron Ages, the other, nearby, from the post-Roman period; the dry stone walls that likely inspired the heraldic design are found in the former. (So this fortuitous example happens to illustrate why I avoid going much into the weeds of explaining or merely translating the stated semantics of all these communal arms.)
Source: Ralf Hartemink´s webpage
António Martins-Tuválkin, 26 Mar 2025
Published in Diário da República: III Série on 4 June 2003
António Martins-Tuválkin, 26 Mar 2025
Barcose was one of the eight communes of Tabuaço Municipality affected by the 2013 changes. It had 592 inhabitants in 2021 and covered 9,81 km².
António Martins-Tuválkin, 26 Mar 2025
![[Santa Leocádia commune flag #1(until 2013)]](../images/p/pt-tbcbl-sl.gif) 2:3 image by António Martins-Tuválkin and Sérgio Horta, 28 Mar 2025 |
![[Santa Leocádia commune flag #2 (until 2013)]](../images/p/pt-tbcbl-sl2.gif) 2:3 image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 29 Mar 2025 |
It is a typical Portuguese communal flag, with the coat of arms centred on a plain green field.
Source: Sérgio Horta´s webpage
António Martins-Tuválkin, 28 Mar 2025
![[Santa Leocádia commune CoA #1 (until 2013)]](../images/p/pt-tbcbl-sl).gif) image by António Martins-Tuválkin and Sérgio Horta, 28 Mar 2025 |
![[Santa Leocádia commune CoA #2 (until 2013)]](../images/p/pt-tbcbl-sl2).gif) 2:3 image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 29 Mar 2025 |
Shield Or a square Sable charged with a dolmen Argent flanked wreathwise by two olive branches Vert fructed Sable with their proximal stem ends crossed in saltire and tied by a ribbon Gules and surmounted by a grape bunch Purple leafed Vert, on base wavy Azure a barrulet wavy Argent. Mural crown Argent with three visible towers (village rank) and white scroll reading in black upper case serifed letters "SANTA LEOCÁDIA - TABUAÇO".
Meaning:
The olive branches stand for oliviculture, the grape bunch stands for viticulure, the waves refer to the Tedo River, which constitutes the commune´s western boundary, and the dolmen stands, surprisingly, not for any specific local pre-historic megalithic monument but rather generically for the commune´s history, "of which many traces remain, namely from the Roman period".
As if that was not enough, the text quoted both in the municipal website and at Sérgio Horta´s webpage also heaps on this same element yet another meaning: "also the well known lead mines located in the communal territory". I suppose that this would be rather about the whole device, dolmen on black square (maybe for lead), just like a lozenge Sable usually stands for coal, or maybe the dolmen as represented (one horizontal monolith atop two vertical ones) doubles as a mine entrance. The whole
thing reeks of "design by committee" and as an attempt to cram as much symbolism as possible onto already blazoned charges.
In the image of Sérgio Horta the red ribbon blazoned is missing (see left images), likely a discrepancy between text and image approved by the Comissão de Heráldica da Associação dos Arqueólogos Portugueses (CHAAP). Image on source below displays the ribbon (see right images).
Leocadia of Toledo, see here, is known for having engraved crosses on stone walls with one finger alone, so maybe the rock surface of the dolmen is a nod to that, too.
Sources: Ralf Hartemink´s webpage
Tabuaço municipal webpage
António Martins-Tuválkin, 28 Mar 2025
Published in Diário da República: III Série on 12 June 2002
António Martins-Tuválkin, 28 Mar 2025
Santa Leocádia was one of the eight communes of Tabuaço Municipality affected by the 2013 changes. It had 118 inhabitants in 2021 and covered 2,99 km².
António Martins-Tuválkin, 28 Mar 2025
back to Tabuaço Communes click here