Last modified: 2024-12-21 by 
klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: vila franca de xira(freguesia) | fleur-de-lis(yellow) | tower(white) | waistcoat |
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![[Vila Franca de Xira commune flag]](../images/p/pt-vfxvf.gif)
2:3, image by Jörg Majewski, 14 Dec 2024
It is a typical Portuguese communal flag, with the coat of arms centred on a field quartered of red and white.
Source: Sérgio Horta´s webpage
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 17 Dec 2024
![[Vila Franca de Xira commune flag (2011 - 2020)]](../images/p/pt-vfxvf1.gif)
2:3, image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 18 May 2018
The flag was quartered of white and red with centred modified municipal arms.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 21 Apr 2015
Shield Argent with base wavy of Azure and Argent, a waistcoat Gules, surrounded by a wreath of wheat ears Vert. Mural crown Argent with four visible towers (town rank) and white scroll reading in black upper case serifed letters "FREGUESIA DE VILA FRANCA DE XIRA".
Meaning:
The silver background refers to the adoration of Our Lord Jesus of the Good Death, celebrated by the local people, furthermore to Our Lady of Conception of Alcamé, also denoted as Queen of the Ribatejo. Both saints have their sanctuaries and a way of pilgrimage. The waistcoat is that one of a herdsman and is a representation of a local festival, celebrated by herdsmen and farmworkers. The wreath is symbolising the local marshes and their agricultural riches, especially the production of wheat on the fertile soil. "Alcamé" is said to be of Arab origin, meaning abundance of grain. The base wavy is a representation to the Tejo River, dividing the commune into the city and the marshes.
Source: Hiperglobal webpage
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 17 Dec 2024
There is no proper coat of arms and the shield is shared with the namesake municipality. It conspicuously has yet to have adopted communal symbols and it uses, in an illegal fashion, the same coat of arms as the municipality, crowned with a mural crown of four visible towers, and with a scroll reading "FREGUESIA DE VILA FRANCA DE XIRA"
This usage evidences an interpretation of the the symbolism of local Portuguese heraldry in what concerns the hierarchical status (town vs. city) and the level of subdivisions (municipality vs. commune), when it comes to eponym seat settlements that is internally consistent although completely different and contrary to the law. Both the generic legal regime and the local heraldry law consider all communes of a given municipality as equals, and them all distinct from the encompassing municipality. Even when one of the communes is eponym, there is no such thing one commune as the seat of a municipality. This usage might not be uninque to this commune.
Sources: here and here
António Martins-Tuválkin, and Klaus-Michael Schneider, 18 May 2018
Published in Diário da República: II Série on 16 April 2020 Former symbols had been not approved offially.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 18 May 2018 / 17 Dec 2024
Vila Franca de Xira is one of the two communes of the namesake municipality not affected by the 2013 changes; it had 18 197 inhabitants in 2011 and covers 212,9 km². The commune of Vila Franca de Xira includes the seat city and the vast uninhabited tidal island and estuarine marshland areas in the southeast of the municipal territory (even those much closer to other settlements / commune seats - a veritable metropolis in this regard). Vila Franca de Xira Commune - though the biggest commune by area- is not the biggest by inhabitants.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 18 May 2018
back to Vila Franca de Xira Communes click here