Ourique Municipality (Portugal)

Concelho de Ourique, Distrito de Beja

Last modified: 2014-11-15 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: ourique | knight | crescent | sun | tower(silver) |
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• About the Flag
• Version without Coat of Arms
• Previous Flag
• Presentation of Ourique

• Ourique Communes
• Portugal

• Page about Ourique 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 quartered of white and red.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 21 June 2007

Shield Gules on a ground Proper an equestrian knight clad and armed Argent the horse Argent harnessed Gules, on dexter chief a sun Or over a tower Argent, on sinister chief a crescent Argent pointing dexter over a tower Argent. Mural crown Argent with four visible towers (town rank) and white scroll reading in black upper case letters "OURIQUE".
Meaning:
Ourique was once thought to be the actual loction of the famous eponymous battle where Portuguese 1st King Afonso Henriques’ army faced Emir Ali ibn Yusuf’s Moorish army in 1139. (More about this battle here.) It is interesting to note, however that the mythical and mystical connection linking this battle with the origin of the primitive Portuguese coat of arms is not reflected on this coat of arms. This is probably due to the academic discredit felt by the 1930’ies heraldists, who devised these arms against the popular historiography and heraldry behind the said link — ~even the location of the battle in this municipality was disputed.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 21 June 2007

Flag and arms adopted and published in the official journal Diário da República : I Série on 14 February 1985, remarkably late date
António Martins-Tuválkin, 21 June 2007

Version without Coat of Arms

Previous Flag

The previous flag, used unofficially for a very long time, was plain white and the scroll reads "VILA DE OURIQUE". Since the main difference between this unofficial flag and the official one adopted in 1985 is the background pattern, and considering that three other Portuguese municipal flags use officially plain white backgrounds (Alfândega da Fé, Machico, and Torres Vedras), I can't see the reason for taking so long to officialize this flag.
António Martins, 21 Jun 2007

Presentation of Ourique

Ourique municipality had 6199 inhabitants in 2001 and consists of 6 communes covering 660,15 km². It is part of: Beja District, traditional province and NUTS III Baixo Alentejo, and 1999 ref. adm. region and C.C.R. / NUTS II Alentejo.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 21 Jun 2007

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