Moura Municipality (Portugal)

Concelho de Moura, Distrito de Beja

Last modified: 2014-10-31 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: moura | tower(black) | woman | mooress | base |
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• About the Flag
• Version without Coat of Arms
• Presentation of Moura

• Moura Communes
• Portugal

• Page about Moura at the Portuguese Municipalities’s Association website (incl. image of the arms)
  reported by António Martins, 18 Nov 2001

About the Flag

It is a fairly typical Portuguese municipal flag, with the coat of arms centred on a field gyronny (city rank) of black and yellow.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 24 Feb 2000

The coat of arms is Argent, a tower Sable with port and windows Or placed upon a base Vert on which llies the corps of a muslim young lady robed Argent. Mural crown Argent with five visible towers (city rank), scroll reading "NOTÁVEL VILA DE MOURA" (upper line) and "CIDADE" (lower line), all in black upper case letters on white.
Meaning:
This coat of arms depict the final scene from a local legend, which tells about a moorish princess who threw herself down from the tower where she was imprisoned. The toponym also refers to this legend, "moura" meaning "moorish woman" ("mooress"?).

The weird text on the scroll, "Noteworthy town of Moura / City", has a story also: When Moura received the title "noteworthy" (I dont know why), it was a town. When, much later (in the 1980ies, I guess), it became a city, it was not possible to change the wording of that honourable mention, and so the word "city" was dully added. A similar case is Vila Franca de Xira, but this adopted a more elegant solution, with a folded, longer scroll and text in one line.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 24 Feb 2000

Flag adopted and published in Diário da República: III Série on 18 November 1988
António Martins-Tuválkin, 24 Feb 2000

Version without Coat of Arms

Presentation of Moura

Moura municipality had 17 090 inhabitants in 1990, and it is divided in 8 communes, covering 958 km². It belongs to the Beja District and to the old province of Baixo Alentejo.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 24 Feb 2000

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