Last modified: 2015-09-05 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: albufeira | castle (red) | eagle (black) | moor's head | king's head | base(wavy) | lagoon |
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![[Albufeira municipality]](../images/p/pt-abf.gif)
2:3 image by André Serranho, 19 July 1999
It is a fairly typical Portuguese municipal flag, with the coat of arms centred on a field gyronny (meaning city rank) of yellow and red.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 19 July 1999
![[Albufeira municipality CoA]](../images/p/pt-abf).gif)
image by Sérgio Horta, 19 July 1999
The coat of arms is Argent, a castle Gules, with port and windows Or, by a sea of three wavy fesses Vert and Argent, and under an eagle Sable between a christian king’s head, dexter, and a moorish king’s head, sinister, both proper (from the traditional Algarve arms). Mural crown Argent with five visible towers (city rank) and white scroll reading in black upper case letters "CIDADE DE ALBUFEIRA".
Meaning:
The arms bear the usual Algarvian symbols (the heads). This castle stands for the local castle, the waves for the sea and the eagle for something that I don’t know.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 19 July 1999
Albufeira gained the title of a city, incl. seat of a municipality on 23 August 1986
António Martins-Tuválkin, 19 July 1999
![[Albufeira municipality 1937]](../images/p/pt-abf4.gif)
2:3 image by André Serranho, modified by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 6 Nov 2014
It is a fairly typical Portuguese municipal flag, with the coat of arms centred on a field quartered of yellow and red.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 6 Nov 2014
The changes were trivial. The old coat of arms had four towers instead of five and the inscription "VILA DE ALBUFEIRA".
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 6 Nov 2014
Flag and arms adopted and published in Diário do Governo : I Série on 14 May 1937
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 6 Nov 2014
![[Albufeira municipality plain]](../images/p/pt-abf0.gif)
2:3 image by António Martins-Tuválkin, Apr 2010
Plain (monocoloured) Portuguese subnational flags are not allowed to have variations without arms: plain flags always carry the coat of arms.
Jorge Candeias, 18 July 1999
Albufeira municipality had 21 730 inhabitants in 1990, and it is divided in 3 communes, covering 140 km². It belongs to the Faro District and to the old province of Algarve.The name "Albufeira" is of arabic origin and means in Portuguese reservoir(or sometimes lagoon).
António Martins, 19 July 1999
In Spanish, "albufera" means a seaby lagoon which fills and empties with the tides through a narrow sea outlet (and that is the original Arabic meaning, as far as I know).
Santiago Dotor, 20 July 1999
That’s one meaning of the word in portuguese too. Is there such an Arabic word as "buhera" or something similar?
Jorge Candeias, 21 July 1999
"Bukheira" = "small sea" = "lake"; could be also "lagoon" — from "Bakh’r" = "Sea". (Or it could be something connected with trained falcons…)
Dov Gutterman, 21 July 1999
When Algarve was part of the Arabic empire, in that place existed a very small swampy lagoon/estuary. Even if today the city spreads along the cliffs by the sea (and having parts of it in danger of meeting the sea from a shorter distance than desirable, if you know what I mean), it’s original settlement followed the valley of a small creek. So, the coat of arms of Albufeira remains enigmatic…
Jorge Candeias, 24 July 1999
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