Last modified: 2016-03-12 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: calheta de nesquim | hound | mattock | sperm whale | base(wavy) |
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![[Calheta de Nesquim commune]](../images/p/pt-ljpcn.gif)
2:3 image by Sérgio Horta, 21 Oct 2014
It is a typical Portuguese communal flag, with the coat of arms centred on a plain red field.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 21 Oct 2014
![[Calheta de Nesquim commune CoA]](../images/p/pt-ljpcn).gif)
image by Sérgio Horta, 21 Oct 2014
The arms are Or an Azorean hound statant Sable garnished Argent, in chief two mattock's blades Gules, in base wavy of Vert and Argent a sperm whale Sable naiant over all. Mural crown Argent with three visible towers (village rank) and white scroll reading in black upper case letters "CALHETA DE NESQUIM".
Meaning:
The dog is 1500ies Nesquim itself, from the village's foundation tale (arms partly canting), representing the very first creatures living in the area. The base wavy is alluding to the sea and the whale to the local whaling tradition. The blades are representing agriculture and stock-breeding, the economic base of the commune.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 21 Oct 2014 and Klaus-Michael Schneider, 11 Jan 2016
I’m guessing that this sentence, whence-ever it come, refers rather to living creatures brought over by colonists arriving in and after the 15th century — cows, goats, pigs, mules, donkeys, horses (maybe), rabbits (soon to become a feral pest), and rats (unwillingly but unavoidably).
Nesquim is the given name of a ship dog, who features proeminently in local history as on the CoA — having saved his masters from drawning in a shipwreck and lead to the foundation of the settlement in the 16th
century; (and take this legend and its naïve encyclopedization cum magno grano salis).
Source: Portuguese WIKIPEDIA
António Martins-Tuválkin, 3 Feb 2016
Flag and arms ublished in the official journal Diário da República: III Série on 2 July 2003
António Martins-Tuválkin, 21 Oct 2014
Calheta de Nesquim Commune is one of the six communes of Lajes do Pico Municipality (q.v.); it had 343 inhabitants in 2011 and covers 15.9 km².
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 11 Jan 2016
back to Lajes do Pico Communes click here